A Most Intriguing Case
by Mr. Skiperdoo
Summary: A simple murder? Does such a thing exist? A detective must take a journey through the Lylat and even his own memory if he wishes to find the murderer of Vixy McCloud, but when his search gets in some snags, everything opens up to something larger than he could envision.
1. A Day Too Early

Author's Notes: **Alright, before you start getting any ideas, let me answer them for you. This story began almost half a year ago as an obscure concept, and sort of grew from there. To tell the truth, I'm actually surprised that nobody's created something like this. (I'm wrong, aren't I?) It was actually going to be an L.A. Noire crossover or something, but I decided that would be too much. Instead, I'm giving the singular onset of a pure fanficky mess. Most of this was written over the course of months, so not everything was thought up in a matter of days. In fact, I almost dropped this story completely, but I had a dream that finishing it would somehow grant me with wisdom beyond compare.**

**Actually, I just had nothing better to do. **

**I'm Skippy by the way, if you'd like to read my other stories, go on ahead. (Yes, I am a terrible person for doing that) I don't know how far this story will go, or if anyone will like it. I'm also not the kind of guy who needs the positive opinions of others to solidify my own, but… if you'd like…**

EnJoY!

~X~X~X~X~X~

Detective Tyler watched as the sparsely placed raindrops stroked themselves across his office window. Outside, the grey clouds obscured most of the Cornerian skyline. Today was the most boring, uninteresting day he'd experienced within the past month. The cases had become progressively less involving, as many times he was forced to resort to saving children that got caught up in trees. He hadn't actually accepted a job that made his blood pump in over two weeks, and with the political tensions rising, he was waiting any day now for a good old riot to hold back.

Ever since he left the military, Tyler had slowly begun to hate police work. Sure he loved the exhilaration of chasing down criminals, but he found it much to restricting, and almost never did he ever get to use his weapon. He wished there would someday be an opportunity where he could use his power freely, unbound by the agency's rules.

The bored wolf reluctantly returned to his desk, much to his dismay still filled from side to side with paperwork. All his recent antics would continuously be showered with confirmation forms requesting he follow proper protocol the next time around. He held up another document questioning his full understanding of the correct procedures. It didn't matter how much they tried to pound it into him, he'd always tackle suspects to the ground, there was no way they'd stop him from doing it his own way.

He casually glanced above the scattered reports. There he saw the erratic panther that had the pleasure of being called his partner. He was standing around with a dumb look on his face, which was unsurprising. Every morning he'd run over to Tyler and ask him if he'd been secretly promoted in some private meeting he'd been left out of. But today he was strangely quiet, not a peep had been heard out of him.

The black cat whistled to himself as he looked around the darkened office. He seemed to be pretending Tyler didn't exist, as he gave no attention to him whatsoever. He held a lukewarm coffee pot in his hands, which he hastily placed on the table over to the side of the office. "Its uh… Papetoon brew… your favorite." He said, strategically avoiding eye contact with Tyler. Within a split second, the nervous panther swiftly turned around and headed for the door.

"Walter, I know you didn't come in here just to get me my coffee." The panther froze once he heard his friend speak up from across the room. "You're hiding something, and I know it."

Walter slowly turned around to face his partner. He was definitely keeping something from him. "What do you mean… hiding something?"

"Don't play stupid with me Walter." Tyler got up from his chair, and walked over towards the now shaking feline. "The only time you ever voluntarily bring coffee into my office is either when you're pulling a prank on me, or when you know there's a case ready for us." He said, folding his arms. "And I can already tell you're out of ideas after last week's supposed living toilet incident. So what is it this time; theft, scandal, teenagers?"

Walter raised his hands up so that Tyler could see them. "Ok ok, you got me. There just so happens to be a case lurking about. Real high profile and all, but I'm afraid the chief really doesn't want you in on it." He answered, backing away from the intimidating figure in front of him.

"The chief huh?" Tyler grabbed his chin. "Now why would the chief want to keep something from me? Is it because he wants to solve something on his own for a change?"

"Well… he just told me to keep you here and not disturb him… and his important… oh I give up!" Walter threw his arms up in frustration. Tyler's plan to stare at him until he revealed the truth worked like a charm. "The chief really didn't say anything, I just didn't want you go put yourself in danger with another homicide case!" The panther ended his sentence with a series of long, pulsing shouts. He obviously didn't like the fact that Tyler continuously took the most dangerous cases against his partner's will.

"Another homicide eh? It's about time we took another one of those." Tyler nodded his head as he walked back over to his desk. There sure was a lot of paperwork still to do, but another case to break the routine couldn't hurt that much. "When was the last time we had one of those again?"

Walter cringed slightly before giving his answer. "It was a couple months ago… when we found that woman lying dead in a large vat of shampoo ingredients. I still haven't gone back to using that brand."

Tyler smiled as he skimmed over the unfinished files. He was ready for a new case; nothing would keep him from learning more about the new job. "So, fill me in on the basics." Tyler motioned for his partner to take a seat on the opposite side of the desk. He sloppily stuffed the remaining paperwork into an empty drawer, the only one that wasn't filled with an assortment of emergency candy bars.

"Well, most of what I know is that it's really high profile case. Whatever wacko committed this one clearly didn't aim for subtlety."

"Are you sure it's a murder?" Tyler asked with a skeptic tone. He knew that sometimes, things that appeared to be horrific murders turned out to be either just accidents or acts of the victims own accord.

"I don't remember the last time there was a car bomb suicide."

A spark of interest lit up inside Tyler's mind. A car bomb? In Corneria? Never had such an event occurred in the modest city. Perhaps this would be the fascinating case he'd been waiting for so long. "Alright now you've got me hooked."

"I know you really want to do get more into this, but I seriously don't want to go on another wild goose chase with you. The last time we did that, the goose turned out to be the good guy all along." Walter shrugged as if he were unsure about what to do in the situation. He may have been unsure, but Tyler sure wasn't.

"Where did the murder take place?" Detective Tyler asked. He didn't hear any noises this morning, and the entire police station seemed pretty quiet for a slow Wednesday.

"Down at Fifth District, a good ten minutes from here with decent traffic."

"Did you catch the exact time it occurred?"

"I didn't really get that part; all I know is that it happened earlier this morning." Walter answered with a surprised look in his face at how Tyler was reacting. He watched as his canine partner got up from his chair, grabbed his tan fedora, and headed out the door.

"Wait, what are you do- no way! We're not going to just accept this case like its nothing! You can't just waltz out of here expecting me to follow you! Oh come on!" Walter reluctantly began to follow in his friends footsteps, trying to somehow convince him to stay away from the case. But he knew once Tyler made up his mind, there was no way to bring him back.

The confidant detective walked through the nearly empty police station. He turned his head around to face the confused panther heeding in his footsteps. "Walter, you're car's the one with those delightful seat warmers, correct?"

"Well yes… but… why do you ask?"

"Because I feel like taking yours today." The lupine said, giving a pleased smirk as he headed for the parking lot.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Please, everyone stay back. This is a police investigation, no one's allowed in… sir, I'm going to have to ask you to put some pants on." The frustrated badger struggled to hold the curious crowd from going past the police line. A substantial amount of Cornerians gazed over towards the smoke filled street. They all wanted to know what lied behind the barricade of police cars.

"Everyone listen! You're not allowed to come any further! This is…" The badger's radio beeped furiously. The crowd had become so loud that it was now easier to communicate through the wireless receivers than it was to yell directly to each other across the street.

"Harrison, come in: You're now authorized to enforce code 7, its no longer possible to keep them back by conventional means, over." The voice on the radio said.

The surprised badger shook his head. "But… sir… I could just call for backup… or-

"No need Harrison, this' gotten more serious than previously thought. It is imperative you don't let anyone through, over."

The badger hesitantly brought the radio back up in order to reply. After a brief pause he mustered the willpower to speak back. "Yes sir, I'll make sure nobody… breaks through, over."

The crowd was now steadily growing, if any more started to squeeze onto the street, he'd surely have to follow through with code 7. He slowly reached for the spray tazer lying above his real sidearm. Taking it out, he breathed heavily as he took in the scene before him. He really didn't want to inflict such pain on the citizens, but if some mentally insane creep broke through, he'd hold no quarter on the poor individual.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Great… how are we going to get through all this? It's as if a free brownie stand opened up in the middle of the damn street." Tyler stared into the large group of people blocking the way to the crime scene. Apparently, half of the entire city decided to cram into the one tiny little spot as if it were New Year's Eve.

Walter closed the door to the driver's seat and made sure it was locked. "I was thinking about driving in a straight line through the onlookers, but that would be painfully difficult to clean up." He noted, wiping his coat off. "I suggest we head onward through… more practical means."

The two slid their way through the maze of Cornerians, trudging through endless hallways of furry and sometimes scaly tails. The crowd closed in on them every once in a while, making it difficult to move through.

"It would've been much easier to have dropped in with them." Walter said, noting the small news aircraft hovering above the ominous pile of smoke.

"Not really, I hear channel 17 doesn't like the local law enforcement."

"But wait, isn't channel 17 a system wide network?"

"They really don't like us."

Eventually the two reached the point where the crowd was finally beginning to thin out; the area in front of them had small barricades keeping interested observers at bay. An officer standing on top of his vehicle holding a taser yelled at the crowd to keep quiet and just go home. Tyler made his way over to the occupied badger while keeping his distance from the cluster of Cornerians.

"Oh… thank god you're here detective." The now relieved badger said, finally showing some signs of content. "You think you can give me a hand with this?" he pointed at the massive gathering of people in front of him.

Tyler scanned the area over to the right of the barricade, where the blue shirts begun to get more frequent. The highly concentrated number of officers blocked his view of the full scene; all he could make out was a bunch of people either talking near the chief or watching the horrifying scene up close.

"I'm afraid I have other matters to attend to Harry." Tyler said, implanting a deep sense of hassle into the poor badger. "But I'm sure Walter here would be glad to help you!" He said, opening up towards where his partner was idly standing.

"Wait what?"

"If it makes you feel better." Tyler shrugged as he easily moved past the breach in the barricade. "I'll let you know when your part comes in." He said, leaving his partner trapped in the unfortunate position.

"I hate you…" Walter sneered, turning his head away from Tyler as he grabbed a megaphone from inside the car. It didn't worry Tyler at all that his best friend just admitted to disliking him to a great extent; he always spoke like that, and it really didn't matter since they'd usually be hi-fiving each other within five minutes time.

"Attention everyone, shouldn't you all be at work? I mean seriously, it looks like you all abandoned your garbage collection jobs in order to check out the column of smoke coming from the corner. Just return to your daily lives, or turn on channel 17, you're sure to get a much better view than what you have now." Walter's amplified voice slowly faded away as the lupine detective headed towards the snobbish eagle known to him as his chief.

He slowly approached the engaged bird, thinking of ways to avoid his ever watchful eyes. '_Maybe if I stay real quiet any walk out of his line of sight, he won't notice me._'

"Ah, detective O'Donnell, I didn't expect to see you here."

'_Damnit._'

"Uh, the feeling is mutual chief…" Tyler said with the best fake voice he could comprehend.

"It's a good thing you arrived here, I was going to call you, but I figured you'd arrive on your own." The chief replied, looking above the tall Cornerian buildings surrounding them. "And with half of the force vacationing to Zoness this time of year, we need all the help we can get."

"All the help you can get? You mean I'm not enough?"

"Excuse me?"

"Nevermind.,, just forget what I said." Tyler shook his head in confusion; he certainly didn't want to look foolish in front of the chief. Despite his continuously unsavory attitude towards Tyler, the eagle seemed to be at an understanding with him at the moment. His frequent shifting to and from the crime scene seemed to bring something up in him.

"Uh, yes well, I'm sure you want to get to examining the evidence as soon as possible, but I also want you to talk to the victim's… eh husband." The eagle sputtered with short intervals of hesitation. He grabbed his collar and lifted his beak as he motioned over towards the sealed off area over to their left. "He may be able to… fill you in on some details… get you familiarized with the case setting and all." The intimidating avian sighed as he turned his head over towards a nearby house.

"So I… will be heading over to the crime scene, correct?" Tyler asked, hoping the chief would let such a simple task go by unnoticed.

Without warning, the rough eagle lashed back at Tyler with his hand molded into a fist. "Just… just make sure you don't get your damn paws all over my crime scene." He scoffed, retracting from the stunned lupine with his arms folded. "Other than that detective, it's all yours."

"That's… it?" Tyler felt a smooth sense of relief now that he was being let free.

"Why yes, now will you leave me alone to my own duti- well there is one more thing Mr. O'Donnell…"

Tyler stopped in his tracks once he heard his boss change his intention mid-sentence. "And what would that be?" He asked, preparing his mind for an entire range of unfortunate answers.

"Your nephew… keep an eye on him will ya? I just don't want him getting into any more trouble if you know what I mean."

Tyler knew exactly who the chief was speaking about. Little Wolf kept getting into more trouble as he grew older. At times, the detective would have no choice but to return the poor vulpine back to his home after encountering him at the police station.

"Alright, I'll be sure to do that…" He answered, raising his hand as he turned away to leave the worried avian. "Oswald…"He smiled as he walked closer and closer towards the obscured crime scene.

He ducked under a line of police tape encircling the destroyed vehicle. It was only then he began to take in the full extent of the scene. In the center was a charred mess; burnt and twisted steel made it difficult to tell what the car looked like before. The whole vehicle was now bent completely out of shape, even the manufacturers would have a hard time telling which piece is which.

"Shame," Tyler noted as he walked around the destroyed hunk of metal. "I bet it was a nice car. Probably would've loved to drive around the city in tha-

He gazed over towards a couple officers carrying a black body bag away from the crime scene. "Nevermind…"

He sighed and took a couple of nitrile gloves out from his pocket. He put them on and proceeded to open the hood to see what lied underneath. "Ahh!" His face was met with a quick release of smoke and heat. It couldn't have exploded that long ago.

The smoke eventually cleared. Now was the time to get to work. He examined the different nooks and crevasses around the dysfunctional engine. He reached down as far as he could; the gaping hole inside the front of the car made it easier to move about. Now if he could just find the broken remains of the bomb.

"Uh, excuse me?" Tyler was startled by an inquisitive voice behind him. "Are you ok detective? You seem a little bit twitchy, most likely due to the low amounts of Iron in your diet." Tyler recognized the voice as none other than Ulrich Shaffer, the lead forensics officer as well as physical health critic. He was in charge of examining large amounts of dead bodies every day, which probably led him to believe that all of Lylat was out to get him.

"Hello Ulrich…" Tyler said, watching the wide eyed lizard examine every inch of his body.

"I see you've been getting good amounts of exercise. Strange, since this is on average the least active time of year."

"The case Ulrich."

"Ah, yes." The lizard nodded as he observed the car in its entirety. "Well, since you've obviously figured out this is a homicide by now; let me fill you in with the details." Ulrich said as he took out a notebook from his pocket. "Vixy Reinard McCloud, aged 24 years old, murdered at around 7:18 this morning when the car exploded upon startup. The last person who saw her before she died was eh…" Ulrich turned over toward a nearby house. "Her husband." He leaned his upper body over towards a particular part of the house, one where Tyler could see a crying vulpine standing next to an equally sad hare.

"Do we have any suspects?"

"At this point," Ulrich moved over towards a collection of shrapnel positioned a few meters away from the car's front side. "Anyone with access to a class 3 explosive device is a suspect. This certainly wasn't your average ordinary dirty bomb, no. Whoever did this not only has access to class 3 explosives, but has a strong disliking towards Vixy."

"So now we're looking for personal enemies, correct? Ones who have access to such weapons?"

"Precisely, and the best way to find personal enemies is to speak to somebody very close to her. But of course that's not MY job." He smiled as he nudged Tyler on the shoulder. "And it's certainly not my job question anyone about the case. I only look into the evidence, I-

"I get your point." Tyler interrupted. "I'll go talk to him, but we'll keep in touch, ok? If any one of us finds something important pertaining to the case, we'll discuss it with each other."

The lizard looked down at the ground. "Very well detective, I'll make communication a high priority. I'm sure there's more to this case than meets the eye." He said, making a sad, miserable, and downright failure of a secret handshake soon afterwards.

Tyler awkwardly stepped back from Ulrich as he faked a smile. He then turned away and didn't look back. As he ducked back under the police tape and away from the crime scene, he could still hear him faintly whispering 'more magnesium… more magnesium…'

Over to the side of the nearest building, Tyler saw a couple of officers standing near what he presumed to be the victim's nearest relatives. A decently built vulpine leaned over a much smaller duplicate of himself; holding the small child tightly against his body, they both cried in unison as they tried to look away from the crime scene.

As Tyler walked closer, he could hear the voices of a couple officers alerting the vulpine of his arrival. "Mr. McCloud…" The deeply saddened man turned to face the officer. "Someone's here to see you." The vulpine let go of his terrified child, and made eye contact with the detective.

Tyler took a deep breath as he approached the formidable vulpine with seemingly undying ease. "Mr. McCloud, I'm detective Tyler O'Donnell from the CCPD, and I'd like to ask you a few questions… if you're up to answering them." He asked, subsequently being replied with a fragile nod from the vulpine. "Good, well I'd like to start off with asking you if you may have any idea who'd want to murder your wife. Did she have any personal enemies with a strong amount of hate directed at her?"

McCloud shook his head. "No I… have no idea who would do such a thing. She certainly didn't have anyone that would go so far as to kill her!" He yelled at the general direction of the smoldering car, but retracted, and fell back into a saddened state. "No… I don't know anyone who would be so cruel."

"I see… do you know of anyone who may have planted a bomb inside your wife's car?"

"My wife's car? No no no, its wasn't hers, it was… it was mine."

Tyler raised an eyebrow. Interesting to say the least; they were now standing on the possibility that the murder had unintended consequences.

"Her car wasn't starting for some reason, we'd been getting it repaired many times over the past month. So this morning she asked if she could…" he laid his hand over his head, directing it down at the ground. "If she could use mine…" The depressed vulpine began to shed more tears, as he recollected the very tragic events.

"I'm… very sorry for your loss Mr. McCloud. I'll try my best to get to the bottom of this." Tyler said, trying to comfort the disheartened vulpine. His efforts to alleviate the vulpine's pain proved futile.

Without any warning, Tyler felt a strong hand grab onto his shoulder. "Please… find who killed my wife. Whoever would do such a thing… deserves an equal fate. If you've got your gun aimed at him," he leaned closer to the detective. "Take the shot."

The detective gave a grim and somewhat unsure nod. It was obvious from the looks of it that he was serious about bringing capital punishment to a conspirator of first degree murder. He'd killed before in the line of duty, but all it brought him was a lot of shame, paperwork, and a nasty reputation of being a renegade trigger happy madman.

Whoever he was dealing with this time however, was probably not a shoplifter.

"My condolences Mr. McCloud," Tyler said with a pat on the fox's back. James ignored his comforting gesture. "I'll find the murderer eventually."

With that, Detective O'Donnell left the weeping vulpine with his colleague, returning to the scene of the crime where he met back up with Walter.

The smoke from the explosion had all but cleared completely. It was obviously planted with military grade explosives, the air gave off a smell distinct to a Phoenix based manufacturer.

"Yes, that's right, we need a residue sample examined immediately." Walter told a highly observant Ulrich as they both scanned the twisted piles of the vehicular remains. "Ah there you are," He said once he saw Tyler approaching. "Good news, I asked Ulrich to run a quick chemical sample, and it appears the bomb originated from a-"

"Phoenix? "

Walter looked back at him, surprised. "Yeah, how did you-"

"I was with an Explosive Ordinance Disposal team during my time in the army; I know this wasn't made it some mercenary chemist's basement."

"Right, well from what we can tell, the bomb used here is similar in form to a smart bomb. It has a minimized yield; however, if done right, it could disable a tank no problem."

Tyler looked at the crime scene once more. "No fragments?"

"No, the only fragment of this bomb's existence would be in…"

"The sales records!" Detective O'Donnell exclaimed. "Brilliant idea!"

Walter shrugged. "I made a quick check, and apparently, the nearest facility is 43 miles from here. It won't take too long to…"

"Great, I'll tell the chief!"

"Bu… wait." Walter was too late. The detective had already assumed responsibility.

Tyler set his wrist communicator to reach the chief's frequency.

"What is it detective? You do realize you're fifty feet away from me…"

"No time Ozzy, I think we may have our first lead."

"Well than get to it!" The eagle demanded. "And don't call me again unless you've either found more clues or if you've killed someone. Just because you aim for the legs doesn't mean you won't kill them."

Tyler neared the communicator. "You don't need to worry." He said before turning the communicator off. "And I said I was sorry for that!"

All that was left now was for the two to continue their mission, unaware of what would lie ahead.

"You ready?" Detective O'Donnell asked.

"Ready to go sunbathing on Fichina." Walter answered with a half faked smile.

~X~X~X~X~X~


	2. The Game's Afoot!

Author's Notes: **There was once a big blue lamp which lied in my father's study. It was a beautiful lamp, with its cobalt reflection demanding the room's attention. One day, when air was chilled and sky gripping, I conjured up my ability to touch the forbidden piece of furniture, against my mother's advisory. As my fingers drew near the shade which shaded secrets, I felt the strain in my…**

Didn't come for that story? Well good. You knew your intentions when you clicked on this one, just as I knew my intentions while writing it.

Not really, I still don't know what I'm doing.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Tyler stepped out of the vehicle, judging by the faint scent in the air, some dangerous chemicals were being messed with not too far away. The parking lot was rather empty, even though it looked big enough to fit a couple dreadnoughts if needed.

The facility building itself was somewhat small; it was large enough to house offices for a couple hundred people, but far too small to store anything with a significant payload. From what the detectives knew, there were supposed to be at least 200 employees working at the facility, not including the government mandated security which was supposed to guard the warehouses.

The military got their weapons straight from the factory, so during wartime it was under constant watch. But now there was hardly a security camera to watch them or any visible guards outside. In fact, the entire place looked abandoned.

"A bit small, don't you think?" Walter commented. "I thought this was supposed to be able to supply the army in case of another Aparoid encounter. I remember it was built to sustain enough weapons to defend the entire Lylat if needed. Now look at it; nothing more than a couple warehouses."

"Most of the facility is housed underground. It maximizes space while minimizing vulnerability." The lupine answered using his basic knowledge of weapons storage. "But that still doesn't explain why the massive parking lot is completely empty. We should've had trouble finding a space."

"Think they're on vacation too?" Walter said as he also exited the multi terrain transport.

"Maybe the systems are now automated and have no more need for manual interaction. That would explain the apparent emptiness. "

Walter shook his head. "No, I remember in the army they had a rule never to let systems transport unstable projectiles in detachment."

"Ah yes, I remember the S.T.U.P.I.D rule." Detective Tyler remembered. "Although in Explosive Ordinance Disposal, transporting unstable projectiles with detached systems is pretty much all you do."

The two neared the looming doors of the factory entrance. The metal gates were surprisingly welcoming considering the other methods to getting inside consisted of a lot more fifteen foot fence and razor wire.

"You said something about this being an Aparoid response center?" Tyler asked, curious as to how much his partner really knew.

"Yeah, part of my job in the army was assessing and preparing against threats posed by Condition 1 enemies, that is, enemies who have the capability to cause immense system wide devastation. It was either that, or enter some dead end program to teach Cernians how to fly."

"I wonder what good would ever come out of something like that. All I ever did was work with EOD to disrupt the weapons capabilities of rogue factions. Of course I'm supposed to speak about what I did on Finchina, but what I can say is that it involved a lot of freezing." Tyler knew to withhold his work on that frozen planet. He wasn't allowed to speak about anything by order

"So, you think you would've been able to defuse it if you had the chance?" Walter asked before they proceeded past the door. He expected 'Know-it-all O'Donnell' would be able to whip out an answer with ease, or invent one.

"That was a small scale military grade smart bomb. Bombs like that can't be diffused unless you use its prevention switch. It's much safer to just blow it up in a controlled environment without anyone nearby. That is if you don't have an experienced explosive technician and a pressure releaser to disassemble it."

Walter's face grew much more intrigued; it was inevitable of course, he had to bring up a hypothetical situation. "So if I… somehow had one strapped onto me, how would you…"

"An experienced bomb squad captain would have to decide how to operate in such a situation." Tyler answered, avoiding any attempt to tie a personal connection to the question.

"It sounds like you've been reading up on some military training manuals."

Detective Tyler gave an assured gesture. "I have, it's good to increase your knowledge threshold so you can be ready for any situation."

"Good, now I can get some of the credit when you save the city from a thermonuclear weapon."

The two detectives laughed as Walter opened the door. Inside, it was impossible to tell the place manufactured weapons if not for the Phoenix Corporation Logo above the front desk. The room was surprisingly empty, and the only sign of life was a lone simian manning a computer terminal.

"Suspicious much?" Walter noted when he saw the monkey wearing a covered visor. "Isn't it illegal to have one of those when in a secure military facility?"

"Not if it's used for medical reasons." Tyler answered. "But I hear some pirates use visual enhancement systems for enemy targeting."

"Then we better be careful here." Walter replied, making sure he had easy access to his sidearm.

As the two detectives moved further past the long walkway, they noticed that the secretary wasn't wearing any sort of uniform but instead simple street clothes. Something was definitely amiss.

"Hey idiots, we're closed." The secretary said without even looking up. After he got the idea the two weren't changing their direction anytime soon, he got up from his seat and slammed his hands on the table. "Didn't you hear? We're not open, now scram!"

"Professional service brought to you by the Phoenix Corporation." Walter mimicked in a slogan like fashion.

Tyler took out his badge and I.D. and showed it to the disgruntled secretary. "I'm Detective Tyler O'Donnell, C.C.P.D., I'm looking into the recent murder of Vixy McCloud, and we believe the murder weapon came from one of your facilities."

The simian simply looked at the two detectives as if he was denying a crime. His shaking arms only reinforced the suspicion the detectives had on him. "Hey listen man, we don't use the weapons, we just make them. Now if you haven't noticed already we're clo-"

"Don't give me that sh*t." Tyler demanded, slicing his hands forward. "If that were true, you'd be home watching a news story about the murder _we're_ investigating. No before I start using my authority to arrest you for withholding information, go tell your boss he needs to see us, because apparently you don't know how to treat guests."

"Ok ok, I'm going."The monkey sneered and walked into a door behind the desk. "Damn cops."

Now that they were alone, the detectives could compare observations.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Walter asked, leaning on a suspicion he'd been thinking about the moment they entered. In truth, they both knew what each other thought, he just needed an affirmation on what his partner thought about it.

"Yeah, that secretary sucks. With an attitude like that, there's no way he'd be able to get a job with Phoenix."

"Not only that, but he lied about the facility being closed. The only reason he'd do that is if…"

"Is if he doesn't want us to be here." Tyler finished. The wolf backed away and sat down on a symmetrically placed bench between two metal pillars. "I believe we might have the first lead in our case…" He quickly checked his watch. "27 minutes… don't worry; we won't break your record."

Walter laughed. "That technically wasn't police business, but even then, if you're going to steal my neighbor's TV, you better not come back to get the remote."

The detectives noticed that the door behind the welcoming desk had opened once more. This time, instead of a scrawny excuse for a secretary, out walked a, mild mannered rhinoceros dressed in a fine looking business suit.

"Well now, you two have sure made yourselves comfortable, haven't you?" The suited behemoth asked the two detectives. "I'm sure you have many questions to ask."

After looking at Walter straight in the eyes, Detective Tyler assumed conduction. "In fact, I would." He said, taking his badge out and following the scripted pattern once again. "Detective Tyler O'Donnell, C.C.P.D. I'm investigating the recent murder of Vixy McCloud, and I believe your facility contains information vital to bringing the murderer to justice."

The businessman took a deep breath as he thought up a reply. "This is… that's too bad… what happened? I'll allow you to speak with any worker you'd like if you want."

"There's no need for that yet sir." Walter chimed in. "We're looking for names, dates, sales, anything that will lead us to our culprit."

"I see, and that's where Phoenix falls into the scheme?"

"All of our evidence shows that a weapon manufactured by Phoenix was used in the murder. If we can track down where the bomb came from and who it went to, we'll have a solid case." Detective Tyler replied, giving his partner a nod to make sure they were on the same page.

The Rhinoceros grinned as he looked at the two detectives. "Very well, I'll take you to our records department." He said as he clumsily began to stumble into the doorway of a back room.

Tyler gave a signal to his feline comrade to come closer. He pulled him nearer by the jacket so he didn't have to raise his voice. "Stay here and make sure nothing funny's going on." He said as he looked behind him to see the angry secretary returning to his post. "Be ready to call for backup if we need it; I've got a bad feeling about this."

"What? What are you planning on doing?"

"I can't plan anything if I don't know what to expect."

Walter sighed. "Please don't go all 'Vigilant Gunslinger' on me like last time." He said, pausing to let his recent memory sink in. "I've seen enough death today."

The lupine detective smirked before giving a confident look. "Don't worry, I've been working at the range since then." He backed off of Walter to follow his target before the trail got cold. "I won't miss like last time…"

The panther stared back at his fleeting partner, not comforted in the slightest.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Are you sure you're readings are positive?"

"I'm sure; these devices can detect the source of an explosion from miles away." Ulrich answered as he tinkered with the handheld machine.

The chief was still skeptical. He knew the benefits of increased funding included more reliable instruments, but he still didn't trust that Ulrich's hunch could be confirmed. "That may be true under certain conditions, but basing it on past occurrences can be difficult. If what you're saying is true…"

"We don't need to get the military involved…" Ulrich demanded, letting out a restrictive gesture towards the chief. "If the General gets word that a bunch of people out there have weapons he's supposed to control, chaos will ensue. You know how paranoid he is about 'those damn pirates' taking control."

"What the general doesn't realize is that these hooligans have no sense of direction. They're all hungry for their own power and will follow their leaders only until they betray them when they feel like it. Hopefully by next year we'll have a new general who's more tied to reality."

Ulrich became slightly removed from reviewing the readings. He backed away from the destroyed vehicle to send a full data report to the localized lab. "But chief, what if these pirates are more prepared than we thought? We've already discussed the possibility they may under control of military grade weapons, what's keeping them from using the weapons against us?"

"Let me ask you this, who is the most notorious criminal who could have the brains to organize _anything?_"

Ulrich thought carefully. "I… I guess Dr. Andross?"

"Right and General Pepper already exiled him that hellhole we call Venom."

Ulrich couldn't help but smile at the statement. "Yeah, even if he managed to survive a day, he's dead now. I hear they gave him a supply of oxygen before leaving him; that way he could spend his dying breaths thinking over the horrors what he did to our city."

"What?" The chief retorted. "I don't remember anything about giving him oxygen."

"Oh yeah, Venom's sort of… not very friendly to the eighth element. I believe its atmosphere contains somewhere around 0.07% Oxygen, not a very good thing if you plan on breathing while you're there."

"I hope the bastard died in almost every way possible." The chief said as he clenched his fist. "Many of my friends are no longer alive because of his mishap."

"He didn't do it on purpose; the crater he made downtown was due to an accident remember?"

The chief almost looked back at the lizard with utmost scorn, but he understood where he was coming from. "General Pepper explicitly told him to stop experimenting with those unstable materials. But instead, Dr. Andross had to conduct those experiments in the middle of the damn city instead of in the middle of nowhere."

"So what do you think about Phoenix having a weapons facility just miles outside the city?"

"That's different, with Phoenix we know what's going on inside their facility. And besides, whatever they make gets sent to their consumers; if they started abducting people for experiments, someone would find out."

"Maybe… but it does seem strange that our two crime solvers haven't reported in yet…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Tyler felt welcomed by the new environment; however, he still knew to keep his wits about him. After passing through a large network of inert explosives, he was led into an area divided from the warehouse only by a door and a glass window. He'd seen some security patrolling the area on his way, but none of them were wearing uniforms, and none of them were guarding anywhere specific.

"It's much emptier than I was expecting Mr. Doles. You know there are rules requiring a minimum number of guards, if you don't meet those regulations…"

"I know about the regulations Detective, and I understand your concern. But today, many of our employees are not here because they are preparing for an important event." Mr. Doles turned his attention to a console resting on a mundane looking desk.

"Important event?" The detective asked curiously.

"Oh yes, Phoenix will be holding a presentation tomorrow night at the military convention. Such an event takes days of preparation, so many of our employees have temporarily moved elsewhere, which is why this facility is essentially closed."

"That explains a lot." Tyler was relieved to have lifted his suspicions that everyone in the whole city had ditched work because of the murder he was trying to solve. "Your secretary was less… elaborate in his explanation."

"Secre- Secretary?" Mr. Doles gave a laugh which made the detective's ears wish they weren't so sensitive. "No no, Dyanid's just a specialist we use for managing our stock, his charisma isn't very high-grade, but he's an important factor in supporting our logistics."

'_Great,_' Detective Tyler thought. '_Those are the people who have their hands on weapons before the military does._' Before the detective could ask where the real secretary could be found, Mr. Doles had pulled something up on the console.

"Ah, he we are Detective, a full list of sales information. If you use the filters, you can make it show only those who are not affiliated with the Cornerian Defense Force." Mr. Doles then swiftly left the room, looking almost eager to get out.

"Thanks… I guess…"

For the first time today, Tyler didn't have to worry about acting courteous, trying to keep his job, or trying to navigate through his desk with all that paperwork. All there was now was him and his mission.

The filter was the first thing. He needed to know who else Phoenix was dealing their weapons to. The military was very strict about managing their weapons. The penalty for stealing even a pulse grenade from your platoon could easily land you ten years.

Just a couple of mercenary groups, most of them very small, and not reaching numbers large enough to organize anything big.

The Swiftwings? No, they received contracts to attack pirate groups, not private citizens.

Hugh's Security Consultants? No, attacking wasn't their thing. Besides, they never even got close to Corneria.

The Star Fox team? Now _that _looked suspicious.

Just as Tyler was about to bring up the dossier, he was interrupted by his communicator. He sighed before accepting to receive his partner's message. "Yes Walter, what is it?"

"Hey buddy, guess who just called?"

"My lawyer?"

"No silly, Ulrich just called to say he has more information on the bomb."

"Go ahead…"

"He said that the bomb did indeed come from Phoenix, but there was something strange about the signature."

"What about it?"

"He said that the bomb had been modified, tampered with. To decrease any methods of possibly figuring out where it came from."

"So you're saying someone with a lot of intelligence had to work with this bomb?"

"Yeah, it modified by someone who oddly enough has had experience with this sort of thing to disassemble it and mess with its interior components. Do you have any leads yet?"

"Not yet, I just got to the information terminal after passing the skeleton crew on the lower levels. I'm looking at information about their small scale grade A smart bombs, doesn't seem to be too popular." Tyler said, reading the details from the screen.

"Ah, so you remembered it was grade A. I was actually about to remind you." Walter continued the ongoing inside joke about Tyler's somewhat selective memory.

Tyler didn't in fact remember the bomb type; he was just reading what he saw on the screen. "Actually, I didn't have to search for it myself. Mr. Doles made it easier for me by selecting the information about the grade A bomb, it was already here when I…" Tyler trailed off. His whole body snapped when he came to the realization.

"That fat bastard!"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **U like? If you do, please leave a review! I love it when I have to depend on the constant support of others to reinforce my own!**

**By the way, the story about the blue lamp? Boring. Don't bother.**


	3. Interdiction

Author's Notes: **Be careful when reading this chapter, I inserted knives and other sharp, pointy things when uploading it. One more thing: There seems to be an awful lot of hatred directed at my lamp story, and it has to stop. That is all…**

Interdiction  
~

"What? What's going on?" Walter

"Guilty knowledge. He knew the exact bomb type without me even telling him; the only way that could've happened is if he knew precisely which type he used." Detective O'Donnell frantically looked out the glass door of the office to see what was taking place outside. A few people who were suspicious of his presence gathered around each other. "Plus, I think this skeleton crew isn't enough to qualify for an actual security team; even though many of them are supposedly at some demonstration convention."

"Why not?" Walter asked over the small communication device.

"I counted about ten, normally they'd have a few dozen not including a quick reaction force."

"Tyler, if they…" Walter shirked away so that the 'secretary' wouldn't notice. With a whisper he said, "If they are in control of a bomb facility mere miles outside the city, the General's gonna go crazy!"

"I know, I know… it's just." The detective's sight froze when it landed on a nearby gun locker. If things turned worse, he might just have to use a little more force that only military grade weaponry could offer. "I might have to go back on that vigilant gunslinger promise."

"What? Did you kill someone already?!" Walter practically screamed, but he still kept the volume to a minimum.

"No, not yet. But if anyone's going to die, I'll do my best to make sure it's not me."

Walter knew from his experiences with his partner that he had blood on his hands before. Whether the suspect was running away or if they were pulling a gun out on them, Detective Tyler always had a superheated bolt of micro-fission heated plasma ready for them. He never hesitated when it came to someone else's life; he couldn't wait for the situation to change, he had to act. Even if it meant taking a life.

Walter rolled his eyes. "Well that's comforting." He sarcastically noted. "Tell you what, how about we do what we're supposed to do, which is call for backup, instead of having a couple of *urgh*" He groaned. "…Detectives take on a well armed force of a dangerous size."

"Backup might take too long, but call them anyways." The detective said as he scanned the nearby windows once more. He saw the guards arrange in positions behind empty containers, as if taking cover. "I think we're in for a hell of a ride."

"Fine." Walter admitted as he moved the 'secretary's' hands behind his back. He'd just performed a quick and skilled takedown on the poor soul all while speaking to his comrade. The simian squealed under the intense pressure. "Just… please don't die. Who knows what sort of creep I'll get stuck with if that happens?"

"Very funny. Now call for backup make and sure nobody gets out the way we came in."

"Yes sir." Walter said right before he disconnected. Funny, he'd never called him sir before.

"Sir? Now I might have to investigate Walter."

The detective wasted no time in preparing for the worst. He ran over to the gun locker and yanked the doors open. He expected to find a weapon, something heavier than the small sidearm he already had. But instead of finding a blaster, he was struck with an intense shock when he found himself to be the landing spot of a falling body which had been propped up inside the locker.

The detective leaped back at the sight of the lifeless body falling to the floor. "I guess I know now what happened to the real guards." He said, examining the nasty mark on the guard's clavicle. "Shot in the back, must've been an inside job. Makes sense, that's the only way a small group of thugs could've taken over a facility such as this."

He searched the locker for another weapon, but all he found was a couple of spare explosive shells and a used security uniform, as well as this year's 'Women of the Lylat' calendar. Besides that was a picture of a man very reminiscent to the one on the floor. The canine looked warm in the scratchy photo as he hugged his three children in front of a brown background.

The detective looked back at the body to see if there were any signs of breathing. The picture struck something deep down inside of him which suddenly made him care a little bit more about the guard's life. He didn't have time to tell if he was breathing, because once he leaned down to check, a voice prompted his attention over the loudspeaker.

"_Attention everyone, Mr. Doles has decided that it's time to test out what we came here for. Please report to the back end of the facility so we can finally get out of here_." The low and brutish voice gave a brief pause. "_And don't be last."_

"They're trying to escape, eh?" The detective pulled up his communicator. "Walter, they're trying to escape through the back, tell the backup that…"

Walter interrupted with an abrupt statement as nearby gunfire could be heard at his position. "I'm in a bit of a jam here buddy, maybe later?"

Tyler reacted by shooting at the door before kicking it in two. Nobody was going to get to Walter while he was in Vigilant Gunslinger mode. Immediately, the wolf saw a bulky thug charging at him only seven meters away. He didn't hesitate, the charging thug was met with a charging shot to the face, and as he fell down with the clang of a light armor hitting a metal floor, Tyler saw the searing vapor rise from his lifeless head.

Brutal but necessary. In those brief instances, reaction is everything.

He quickly turned around to see if any other positions were open to his business of death. The only movement he truly got was that of someone escaping through a darkened corridor, fearfully locking the door behind him.

It was now that Tyler felt the intense thrill that could only come from the fresh imprint of a kill. In that moment, all that mattered was putting a hole in the head of anyone who tried to hurt him or Walter. Everything was a blur, and the edge of his vision was a murky collection of flowing reflections.

That moment could be condensed into a rage fueled by his experiences of using both forceful and diatribe efforts to still his enemies. He was no longer a detective, but a soldier.

He leaped down from the railing and onto the open floor below. All manner of ground and space based weapons was construed around him in a maze of unidentifiable differences. He dodged each inert warhead which undoubtedly could wipe out an entire squadron of small craft. The thing is, there were hundreds of them.

Someone was prepared for war. The General's top advisors had always been paranoid about another Aparoid attack. Many objected when he ordered for weapons plants to be built in locations which had been known to hold a dangerous amount of criminals. But of all the places that could've been taken over by a band of thugs, this one would be the last.

A shipping container and a high security gate later, Tyler found himself unable to pass through the door which led to the atrium where Walter was. The detective's heart raced when he was unable to find an immediate way to get into the room. The door was locked, figures.

"Damn it." The detective snarled as his head swiveled from side to side. If the thugs hadn't already taken care of Walter, their numbers were definitely large enough to take him on.

"Come on!" Tyler banged on the door with both hands. For some reason, that didn't seem to work. He breathed heavily before trying to find another entrance. He needed to go back from where he came; however, that exact entrance had been previously blocked by the fleeting escapee.

The only room other than that had a warning label which secured it almost as well as any security guard could. At chest height, it read in a very deterring bold blue letters the word 'experimental.'

Tyler had dealt with experimental weapons before, but that was years ago. Even then, some weapons he had used during his time in the military had already been in production for decades.

Inside the square room, there were shelves full of circular grenades and even a massive rocket launcher which looked extremely difficult to handle. An explosion inside of a bomb factory wasn't the safest idea, but as long as it was small enough, the inert materials wouldn't have enough reason to react.

"Where's the damn breachers?!" He yelled to himself, harkening back to his frustrating days as a recruit. He struggled, shuffling through the large numbers of weapons and detonators until he eventually landed on a fine looking pulse grenade.

"Ten years." He repeated to himself. "I'm sure Phoenix won't care."

He took the grenade from the shelf and made sure the safety release was off. He ran back to the area with the locked door, intent on opening it. The grenade would shatter any systems keeping the door closed; hopefully, it would also damage the door itself, making it easier for him to get in.

One deep breath and a squeeze in the right spot and the grenade lit up on each side, prepared to discharge seconds after it had been thrown. Tyler knew that a pulse grenade posed little danger to him in this environment. The grenade showed to have a small yield, so as long as he kept a good distance, the grenade posed no direct danger to him.

Predominantly, the grenade was used to damage automated systems and vehicles. A long time ago, when such types of grenades had just been invented, they were a devastating force on any battlefield, for if it was thrown in the right spot, it could cause any nearby weapons to explode or become useless. Nowadays, weapons were often hardened to combat this problem, meaning that the once practical tactic had been lost in time.

He launched the grenade, which flew through the air with ease. Covering his eyes, he heard the distinct sound of fizzling electrostatic pulsating from its central source. He looked back up to see the door slowly tilt before falling down with a loud crash.

Now that that was out of the way, it was time to save his partner's hide. He leaped onto the fallen door, almost losing his balance. With his gun drawn, he scanned the small locker room.

Before the detective was able to move on however, his face had already been decided by someone else to be the first part of his body to hit the floor. He held on to the mysterious hand which was attempting to slam his head into the hard floor. He struggled to break free, but the position he was in wouldn't allow him to fight. His arms flailed as his body began to go horizontal. Maybe they finished Walter off, and had moved to complete the job with him. But just before he came to a hard stop, Tyler noticed who it was who'd just attacked him.

"Gotta check your corners detective." Walter said picking up the gun his partner dropped when he disarmed it from him and handed it back.

"Where'd you learn those close quarter combat moves?"

"Well O'D, if you found yourself a wife, you'd get some new fighting skills as well."

Detective Tyler stared blankly.

"That was a joke…"

The two detectives trudged away from the locker room, talking to each other as they made sure each room was clear of enemies.

"Right, did you call in for backup?"

"Corneria's finest are on their way now. At first, they thought I might have been crying O'Donnell, but then they realized that this could escalate into a military affair if handled wrong."

"Understandable… but wouldn't this be a Phoenix affair?" Tyler asked.

"Yeah, but the military gets their weapons from places like these. If they discover that their readiness is being restricted because the weapons they are supposed to receive are actually being transported to organized criminals, well…"

"Yeah I get it." Tyler nodded. "All hell breaks loose."

The detectives arrived at the atrium guarding the front entrance. Their backup hadn't yet arrived, so all there was to greet them there was the six or so unconscious bodies Walter had taken care of.

"If the General finds out…"

"Enough about the General, right now I'm worried at about the Chief. Right now, he's the last person I want to talk to-" Tyler's communicator started to beep.

"Yes… Chief?" The detective answered.

The noise from the other end was clouded with nervous speech and blaring sirens. "Detective, what the hell is going on?!"

"Didn't you hear? The bomb facility only miles away from the city is under new management at the moment."

"All I heard from Walt was that some Mr. Dolt has managed to take over the facility and is now trying to escape."

"You heard right Chief. And I'd like to inform you that I'm not going to let that happen."

The disgruntled Chief raised his voice. "O'Donnell, you stay where you are! He's got no way to escape. If he attempts to leave by air, we've got dozens of military aircraft on standby ready to blow them out of the sky."

"Chief, I recall something was said about them retrieving what they came there for. If they're shot down, we might never recover what they stole."

"I get it. But that might not be my decision; I hear some of these pilots have a mind of their own."

The detective saw through a window a bunch of thugs gathering themselves in preparation for a departure.

"Damn it they're leaving." Tyler said as he tried to get a better view. "Yep, it's by air, only real way out of here." As he got a better look at the presumed escape vehicle, he noticed that its smooth curves and gray exterior looked nothing like any ship he'd ever seen. Perhaps this was what they came for. "Chief, how long till you get here?"

There was a short pause for the confused eagle to gather information. "ETA is about three minutes, and the paramedics are on their way. That reminds me, have you killed anyone yet?"

"One sir… I think. Didn't get enough time to confirm it."

"Good boy. Now keep yourself from getting in any more danger. You do realize _I _have a lot of paperwork to do if you end up dying."

"Is that all sir?"

"Yeah, just… stay out of trouble ok? Believe it or not, you're the only guy we can afford to send over for those 'career days' they always have at the schools."

"I thought you said you'd never speak of that again sir." The detective retold every traumatic experience of dealing with preschoolers to himself silently.

"I lied."

Tyler rolled his eyes.

"But seriously, leave the fighting to the kill teams and the fighter squadrons. You usually seem to forget that sidearm's supposed to be used for defending your own life." The transmission ended.

Detective Tyler peered out the window once more. He walked over to the nearby exit.

"Don't do it…" Walter said nonchalantly as his partner's hand reached for the outside door. "Don't…"

It was too late. Once O'Donnell was on the chase, there was no stopping him until his prey had either gotten away or had became his latest kill.

"TYLER!" Walter yelled as he demanded the renegade detective return. There was no change in his movement; he kept running until the thugs loading speedily onto the ship had begun to take notice. All Walter could do was sit back and watch; no way was he going after him this time.

Detective O'Donnell ran behind a piece of heavy machinery. He neared the corner just as the escaping ship was about to take off. This was it, Mr. Doles could be stopped once and for all with just a carefully placed shot.

He turned the corner but rolled back when he was almost obliterated by a heavy barrage of shots coming from the ship. Fortunately for him, the thugs probably didn't have the best training, and many of their misses could also be attributed to the poor quality of their weapons.

When the blue bolts stopped falling next to the detective's feet, he peeked around the large steel container to see just where Mr. Doles was escaping.

The transport was now off the ground, but its loading hatch was still open, exposing Mr. Doles' large body to the outside world. Just before the detective lined up his shot, he was met with the intensely powerful face of the suited outlaw.

He smiled back at him as if he were confident Tyler couldn't make the shot. Whether this was purely intimidation or just a lack of fear was unknown. But it was not the expression itself that was so powerful, but the simple ability to do so without worry.

Tyler's body froze as he realized the smile was simply enough to disarm him. For it was at that moment that the smirking Rhino had him right where he wanted.

He couldn't fire, but it wouldn't have even done him much good, because just then, the loading hatch to medium sized transport closed, and the exterior of the ship itself gave a few fizzles and cracks before it became completely invisible to the eye. And with a loud noise and a sense of abandonment, it burst off with any trace.

The detective could do nothing but fall on his knees as he stared blankly into the now empty sky.

The sound of sirens and overhead aircraft made their way to the front of the facility.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Yes that's right sir, a stealth ship, probably one of Phoenix's new toys." Walter said as he sat down among the fray of vehicles and incursion teams. The area around it was chaotic as injured facility workers were being loaded onto countless medical vehicles.

"Did you get a good look at it?" The Chief asked hopefully.

"Not really… it is a stealth ship after all." Walter stood and started to walk away, his short attention span meant he had to move somewhere else, possibly to help with the clean up teams.

"Well our boys in the air said they couldn't get a heat signature or anything. It seems Phoenix has really outdone themselves this time." The Chief noticed someone making his way towards him through the intricate path of assorted police transports.

"Detective, what the hell did I tell you about chasing after those… those criminals?" The Chief's voice was as stern as ever.

Detective Tyler's ears drooped in shame. "Sorry sir… it's just…"

"Maybe I should tell you the opposite of what I want you to do! At least then when you disobey my orders you'll be doing the right thing! I always have to remember there's a ninety percent chance that you'll go off and follow your own method, do you wonder why I give you such few cases?"

"But sir, they were escaping, I had to-"

"They left because they saw you. If they didn't know anything was up, or if they'd even assumed that you'd been dealt with, we would've been able to stop them before they left the ground! I can't take your damn renegade antics any longer! If you weren't so good, I would've had you fired long ago! And now, you have to get involved in the dealings of a bunch of pirates who will probably sell this prototype in the black market!"

The detective braced for the worst of the scolding. He knew the Chief only kept him around because he was one of the few officers who didn't have a room temperature I.Q.

"I came here investigating a murder, how was I supposed to stop them?"

"By letting us do the work. You're not the one in the sky with a hyper charged accelerator, your just a detective with a barely lethal sidearm."

The detective looked away. He saw a man which looked just like him being wheeled onto an ambulance nearby.

Up rushed Ulrich, who had just returned from a quick scan of the building. "Chief… Don…" he nodded. "I scanned the warehouses. At least forty Phoenix employees, nine of them dead."

"Did you check near the records room?" Detective O'Donnell asked.

"Yeah… poor bastard." Ulrich looked at the ground, pausing for a brief silence.

"Anyways, I checked up on this 'Mr. Doles' fellow, seems there's an interesting story behind him."

"Do you think he has a connection with the murder case?" The Chief asked.

"Possibly, although I can't confirm it, it's likely he might have something to do with it. But for all intents and purposes, this is an entirely separate case."

"Or just a most intriguing case." Tyler spoke up. "Mr. Doles knew exactly which bomb type was used in the murder without me even telling him. That's highly unlikely considering I never told him a bomb was used; nevertheless the fact that it's supposedly a rather unpopular model."

"Good catch detective!" Ulrich exclaimed. "Now we have a connection."

The Chief rose from the hood of his cruiser. His back popped as he struggled with the aches in his joints. "He's no longer on Corneria, which means our localized force can't chase him." He turned to the detective. "That reminds me, someone wants to see you…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **MIISturYY! **


	4. Transition

Author's Notes: **You will read, now. No blue lamp story, just reading.**

Transition

Sergeant Tyler O'Donnell pressed the door panel as he escaped the cold perimeter and entered the heated outpost. His heavy coat and winter gear slowed him down even more than the effect the temperature had on him after scouting in the freezing cold for a couple of hours. Relieved he could no longer see his breath, and he could now feel his face again, he continued forward through the underground corridor.

It was surprisingly dark, but he figured this was due to them trying to save power. A heavy storm was coming in, and they had to conserve the best they could inside the outpost.

Upon reaching the central part of the outpost, he saw the unmistakable sight of life coming his way. It was his friend Private Taylor, who was travelling in the direction Tyler had just come from.

"Just in time…" Said Taylor, stopping to meet up with his comrade. "How cold is it out there?"

Still shivering, Tyler almost didn't need to reply with words to answer his friend. "Try not to open your muzzle too much if you don't want your saliva to freeze…" Tyler said, noting the Finchina's weather with nearly truthful hyperbole. "Feels like it's about 20 degrees out there…Kelvin*…"

"At least you don't have the night shift." Taylor chuckled. If there was one thing the two shared in common other than their similar names, it had to be complaining about the jobs they had to do. "Do you think when we get back home we'll be unable to live in normal climates?"

"I don't even know where my home will be after this, I'll be lucky if I can afford to live in a Papetoon offshoot colony with the pay we get."

"Yeah, but you never know, maybe you'll get a house in the city, as well as a nice job. Maybe you'll be able to start a family of your own on Corneria."

"C'mon Taylor, you think anyone would want to spend their lives with me? I don't have the strength let alone the emotions to have a real relationship." Tyler never feared having a family; he only feared having a bad one. His tendency leaning away from such feelings sprouted from how his brother had handles his family.

"You know Don, you might be a little more dependable than you give yourself credit for." Taylor said, checking his watch to make sure he wasn't late for his shift. "You're a great guy, I'm sure if you put yourself to it, you'd find some woman who loves you."

"That's… nice, but it's just not what I want. I've never had any desire for that; it's really not something I'd strive for if given the chance."

Taylor nodded as he began to walk down the famed 'cold corridor' for his routine patrol. "That's a shame. It's too bad you don't have any girl to return to. I know when I get back I'll have a warm mate to cuddle with, at least that's something to look forward to." Taylor continued on his way, moving farther from Tyler's position until they were on the edge of making eye contact. "If I see anything out there…" He trailed off, assuming Tyler would be able to guess the words after the final ellipses as the memory faded into the present time.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Detective Tyler O'Donnell sat down at his desk, which was surrounded by a secluded island of light coming from his favorite blue lamp. Reviewing his case notes for what was undoubtedly the last time, he sighed as he put away yet another file which he would no longer need after today. He still had trouble grasping the fact that his future had changed so much in one day, and that a rare and oddly convenient opportunity had been offered to him only hours before.

It came quick and without notice, much like his brief encounter while stationed at Finchina. Although unlike then, this had clear direction and purpose. This case no longer encompassed an entire city or even the entire planet; instead, it was now an inter-system manhunt, and he was right in the middle of it.

A few quick knocks pounded on his apartment door. Detective O'Donnell was shocked somewhat at first, but then his suspicions leveled out when he opened the door to see who it was.

"Hey, I wanted to come over because I didn't see you after they… took you aside." Walter said, faking the movements for a face first takedown. Tyler instinctively reacted in a clumsy stumble.

"Do you know what they took aside for?"

"No, but I bet it wasn't because they needed someone to go to a local school to rile up some kids for career da- aborting joke…" He finished when he saw Tyler's hostile response.

If there was one thing the vulpine hated, it was the memory of him having to work with children. Such things were on par with his assignment on Finchina and paperwork. But nothing relieved him more than the success and closure of a hard fought case.

"So… what did you do?"

"That's a rather generalized question."

"Detective, you and I both know you're going to tell me what happened one way or another. But let's just say one of those ways involves me sharing your most embarrassing escapades."

"Fine, I was going to tell you anyways." Tyler pointed to his beat up couch. "But first turn channel 8 on, I bet they're going crazy over the mysterious pile of smoke from the southern quarter."

Walter listened and flipped through the stations until he reached the destined network available in 'over 4 billion households'. They were currently playing another round of their droning commercials.

Walter pointed to the screen, directing Tyler's attention. "Hey, it's those shampoo guys! The one's we had to solve that murder for!"

On the screen was a video of a well dressed executive standing outside of an eerily familiar shampoo factory.

'_At Schrodinger's, we strive to provide the best quality products for our customers, delivering the best quality care for every type of fur. But sometimes, we understand our products don't meet the standards of quality that you expect.'_

"Dead women in storage vats are what I've come to expect." Walter noted.

As the commercial continued, the camera panned out to show the entire factory.

'_That is why we at Schrodinger's, have decided to join with our parent company to pursue a more unconventional response to the deteriorating welfare of our city. And the best way to do that, is to BUILD A THEME PARK!' _The commercial was then drowned out by an intense breakdown of fast heavy music.

'_THAT'S RIGHT, only at Corneria City will you find thrills, chills, and a new 798 foot gravity coaster, the fastest on this side of the LYLAT! Get your ticket's now and get a free bottle of Schrodinger's quality shampoo, with your choice of short, medium, or lo-' _

__"A theme park? Really?" Walter said as he let the remote down. "But… why?"

"People want to get fighting out of their minds and just relax. Who knows what crazy rouge factions are in possession of dangerous weapons these days?"

"Right, some people can simply walk into a bomb facility and take whatever while the real security is out preparing for some weapons convention. Sloppy, but I guess it doesn't matter when you have someone like Mr. Doles."

"Warlord Freeman…" Detective O'Donnell corrected.

"What?"

"That's Mr. Doles' official name, at least it's what he's usually called."

Walter was confused, but interested. "Did… they tell you that?" he asked, immediately being answered with an assuring nod. "So tell me, who took you aside and why?"

Detective Tyler leaned back into the couch, recollecting the events from earlier that day. "Well…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

As the detective was led past the blazing sirens a utter lack of order around him by the armed guard, he became increasingly self admitting to the stray thoughts in the back of the mind. For starters, he could determine the man next to him holding an assault rifle was a Cornerian agent, not part of law enforcement and not technically part of the army. He was nonetheless employed by the government, judging by the interestingly official insignia on his shoulder.

He knew not why he was being led away from the central action zone, and he did not know who would even want to see him or why. It was only one of the mysteries he was passively trying to solve, but unlike the others, the answer to this case lied directly in front of him.

Out from a military converted vehicle walked a confident looking canid, geared with body armor taken from the newest stocks of lightweight materials. As he saw the detective being led to him, his shoulders dropped as if he were somewhat relieved at his arrival.

"Tyler O'Donnell?" He asked in the form closer to that of an acknowledging statement.

"Yes that's me…" The vulpine answered as the armed guard broke off from him in a seemingly scripted manner.

The agent moved closer to shake hands. "Weiler Rotte, I'm part of the Cornerian Tactical Espionage Agency, those Invaders you saw flying overhead were my doing, and it seems that just as we were on that bastard's tail, he manages to steal a stealth ship. We received reports he'd arrived on Corneria only a week ago; seems that it didn't take long for him to infiltrate a high security readiness facility."

Detective O'Donnell looked behind him to see the aircraft circling one more. "Sorry sir, but it was at such a short notice when we discovered we needed backup. How did the information relay to you so fast?"

"Our ships were in the sky long before you called for backup detective. As it so happened, we were tracking him to this part of the planet when we had an automatically filtered government transmission of your keywords and location transmitted to us. If only we got here sooner." Weiler slammed his fist into his other palm.

Tyler was overcome with a sense of failure; he knew he was partially responsible for being unable to delay Mr. Doles from escaping, and then he'd have a much tougher time getting off the ground. "I did all I could at the time…" Tyler said in a disappointed tone. "He had too much firepower with him."

"Fre- Mr. Doles is known for that." Tyler took instant notice of the canine's correction. "Some of these warlords have enough power to take down a couple platoons if they wanted. Fortunately, they're all too busy fighting among themselves and unable to develop any real organization under a single leader. A couple times they've been able to establish a commander, but then they start another civil war once they get to the problem of deciding on a name."

"He didn't seem to bring too much for this raid. It looks like it was an inside job."

Agent Rotte looked worried. "Inside job? Yeah, Freeman's the sort who'd do that. Most of the warlords are drooling idiots who need people just to tie their shoes, but Warlord Freeman is a former Theoretical Physicist from the Zoness University of Advanced Sciences."

"Freeman?"

"Yeah, Warlord Freeman, it's Mr. Doles' primary alias. These guys don't often use their real names so that later and life they can be themselves without having to worry about personal vendettas from rivals in the past. He's known also as the psycho with an advanced degree, or the One Free Man."

Tyler gained a new suspicion. "So he'd be able to deal with, advanced systems then. Do you think he'd be able to replicate the ship?"

"He definitely could if he had the time, but he couldn't work with the stealth drive even if he had all the spare parts. The only way he'd be able to reverse engineer it or extrapolate its usage would be if he had someone who originally worked on the systems. And the only place he could find that would be-"

"At the weapons exposition tomorrow." Agent Rotte nodded at Tyler's affirmation. "Mr. Doles said something about the convention, that's why he said the facility was understaffed."

"Warlord Freeman's

Agent Rotte approached his vehicle and searched for something he'd been meaning to give the detective. He inserted the small chip into Tyler's communication device, and immediately, the wrist bound computer recognized the signal.

"This will help us stay in touch." He tested the frequency out firsthand, calling himself to make sure it worked. "When we're at the convention tomorrow, we'll have to make sure we communicate properly."

"We're going to the weapons expo?" Detective O'Donnell asked both excited and unsure. The thought of going to such a prestigious event was almost as interesting as the weapons they'd surely have their.

The weapons they generally showed at the convention were ones deemed too impractical to use in true combat. Private military contractors were the main buyers of course, the Cornerian Military only desired weapons which were simple to use and easy to distribute, but some of the more individualized factions could suit their own tendencies with signature weapons.

Private Militaries (mercenary armies if you will) were under constant watch from the Cornerian government. Many of them were hired to defend key areas in case of an Aparoid attack, but they also had to be managed very tightly due to the possibility they might stray towards more illegal endeavors. When these private companies dispersed, the soldiers who made up their framework often took up work in the only other way their experience could direct, and that meant finding someone powerful to follow.

"It's clear as crystal that his intentions have something to do with stealing one of the many advanced weapons from there. They only have billions of credits worth of every kind of device there. They feel they have to show off their military strength, but having that all disrupted would be a demoralizing blow." Agent Rotte scanned the skies to see his Invaders circling back. "We may have lost the trail, but that doesn't mean we can't track down the warlord and give him goo old' Cornerian justice."

"Where do you suppose he is now?" The detective asked.

"It's a bit hard to guess with him being in a stealth ship and all, but my best guess would be he's headed to a station far from our control. By all means, he's probably in enemy territory and long gone, the only way we'd get to him is…" Agent Rotte pondered his idea. "Is if we were lowlife scum like the mercenaries he hired." His words came at the realization of a couple captured pirates being led away into a high security transport and undoubtedly on their way to be interrogated.

Agent Rotte then got an idea, a risky but still plausible idea. From what he could tell, it wouldn't take much, only an acute sense of what it's like to be part of the sticky underside on the tables of society.

"Have you… had any experience in espionage before detective?"

"I've been undercover more than a few times, dealt with the worst."

"Good, that might be helpful in the future."

"What are you talking about Mr. Weiler?"

Agent Rotte took out a business card as if he were a charismatic ship dealer. "We agents often deal in work very similar to yours. The only difference is that our spectrum encompasses a far greater span than your localized police force. I'm not proposing too much at the moment, but be ready to answer the call when… we call you."

"Thanks, but I was discharged from the army a while back. They're not going to let me back in even if I ask nicely."

"We're not really part of the army detective; we're part of the federal Cornerian government. Think of us as a more exclusive part of an executive branch, free from restrains put on our armed brothers and sisters."

"Right, but you still get your orders from General Pep?"

"Not directly, but my superiors do. We often initiate joint operations in more intense situations. But much of our small scale work includes as little as three operators."

Detective Tyler folded his arms. "Are you proposing that I join you Agent?"

Agent Rotte put his paws on the detective's back and pointed to the sky with his other hand. "Your authority at the moment stops when it reaches that atmosphere; but in the Tactical Espoinage Agency, your authority reaches as far as the range of your blaster."

The vulpine eerily enjoyed the sound of that.

"Why do you need to get to Mr. Doles anyway? What is it that brought you here?"

"I'm investigating the recent murder of Vixy McCloud, who was killed via car bomb only hours ago. When I confronted Mr. Doles the first time, I was unaware of the guilty knowledge he had about the murder until it was too late."

Agent Rotte smiled. "Looks like we both have our reasons to go after Warlord Freeman." He approached the front of his vehicle. "Would you care to join me detective? I think it's about time we interrogated those he left behind."

Detective Tyler didn't hesitate, for hesitation had already done horrible things to his day. "With pleasure." He said with a smirk.

~X~X~X~X~X~

On the ride over to the secure base, Tyler talked with his new acquaintance as if he'd known him for years. They shared past experiences of difficult cases and tension filled diversions alike. As they walked down the government building together, they laughed at each other's stories.

"And then, Major Povorich said: 'We're feasting on giant mushrooms tonight boys!' And that was the first time in my life I learned what it was like to clean the latrines in a counter-pressure suit."

Detective Tyler laughed as he finally had to admit he had been bested. "Well… other than the time I accidentally blew up our commander's wedding gift, I can't say I've done anything that crazy before."

"Hehe, and I've just shared the light stuff. You won't believe the things I've seen in my days." The two walked through the building until they came to a section closed off with a yellow line on the floor. Even though the yellow line would undoubtedly be a tough thing to sneak through, they still needed more firepower to keep undesirables at bay. An armed guard kept everyone not allowed past that point well… not past that point.

"He's with me." Agent Rotte waved off as he continued past the heavy metal door. The guard nodded and Tyler was able to walk with him into the highly restricted area.

"The interrogation rooms are right over here; hopefully we'll be able to get something out of these guys."

As Tyler looked about the twisting hallways, he saw windows which were specifically designed to see only one way. It was the strangest of feelings; knowing that someone might be watching, but unable to see them even though they were so close.

Agent Rotte stopped when he reached one of the rooms. "I believe they said one will be in here." He said as he opened the door.

The two came to a complete shock when they saw two guards equally shocked at the sight of the 'secretary' Tyler had met up with earlier, lying on the floor dead.

"What the hell?"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **Cool huh? It seems this story might be a little more ambitious, no? Anyways, I hope those of you with greater attention spans than gnats are able to follow along, I wish I knew what I was writing. Just kidding, I've got a lot more stuff planned, don't worry.**

**Also, I saw The Expendables 2 yesterday, awesome movie, you should really see it. It's almost like what I wish I could think of.**

**Twenty degrees Kelvin is absurdly cold by the way. Want to know how cold? As cold as my heart. There, that joke's out of the way. Please review! **


	5. The One That Got Away

The One That Got Away

The stage was set; the lights were on, the big speech about to be given. Generals, war contractors, all eyes were looking forward, ready to see the unveiling of a new project Phoenix had been working on for the past few years. A long hail of claps echoed through the room as in entered an energetic vulpine whose face screamed 'I want to be here'.

As he crossed the stage on his way to the podium, he pumped his fist up in the air, leaping and yelling, "YEAH! YEAH! Come oooon!"

The crowd cheered even louder at the sight of the Executive Director of Weapons Systems bouncing around the stage. Such an attitude had almost become expected from the charismatic people in power; instead of being an intimidating figure, many of them resorted to being more like excited salesmen, evidently, such actions usually worked quite well.

"Yeah! Yeah! WOOOOH! Get up!" The cycle continued as the words welcomed no change in the onlooker's patience but instead influenced them to all stand as they cheered on the representative of Phoenix's greatness. The vulpine pointed to random people in the crowd as if he knew them.

As the vulpine reached the podium, he breathed heavily before loudly exclaiming. "Who said sit down?!" The crowd gave a responsive laugh. The vulpine too laughed before shaking his head and returning to the podium. His face reeked of determination and pride.

"I got four words for ya." He said, pointing to the mix of Cornerians in front of him and pausing dramatically. "I… love… this COMPANY YEEAAUUSSS!" The crowd didn't hesitate to vocally praise him once more. They were all excited to see what Phoenix had up there corporate sleeves.

The cheering died down, and the room fell at the mercy of silence.

"Friends, military men, money holders," The Director had gone over this speech at least a hundred times in the mirror. "Phoenix is proud to introduce the future… today! But none of this could've happened, if it were not for who? Who?" He searched the crowd for an answer, but none came.

"Well I'll tell you. Developers developers developers developers…" With each repetition, he brought his paws together. The crowd followed by doing the same, whilst repeating his words. "Developers developers developers developers developers…" The crowd of Cornerians started to clap in a rhythm in tune with his words. "yeah…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Can you tell me why we're here again?" Walter asked as he adjusted his rarely used armored uniform. "I mean there are some pretty cool and dangerous looking missiles in the garden, but they're just models right?"

"Nobody's going to steal a two ton rocket when nobody's looking." Detective Tyler said as he once again eyed the neatly laid out sampler platter only ten meters away from him. "We're here to make sure Dr. Holcomb stays safe."

The tired lupine was of course speaking of Dr. Holcomb, who had worked with Phoenix for years developing top of the line stealth technology. The real problem with stealth technology was not to make it invisible to the eye, but invisible to an array of sensors as well. Such a ship brought fears of shadow governments observing each and every move to local Cornerian conspiracy theorists, but flying around completely invisible in space was immensely expensive and would no doubt get regulated to death if it were ever put into any practical use.

"Dr. Holcomb, isn't that the guy who studies anomalous mind functions?" Walter said alluring to the many academic studies performed on those with 'supernatural' tendencies, i.e. Cernians.

"No, that's Dr. Morrison; Dr. Holcomb works on advances technology integration into space faring vessels."

"No wait, that's Dr. Leake…"

"Dr. Leake was the guy who worked with that Andross fellow right before going crazy from intrusive mind experiments. He was the genius who helped develop some of the A.I. security drones for the military."

"Man, glad I majored in military history…" Walter noted right before he watched an armed guard make his rounds once more. "Some people to college to major in button pressing these days." He joked, though not straying far from the eerily close truth.

"With the way the new Dreadnoughts are wired, you could manage the ship with only five able bodied individuals."

"You're kidding…" Walter shook his head in disbelief. Five? Could it be possible? Automation had been a key part in recent history, but it still sounded too unlikely. Far off were the days where Cornerians would be packed 30 to a division, but the idea that self repair systems would negate the need for manned interaction almost completely baffled him.

One thing which was learned the hard way many years ago was to never let systems be in complete control of everything the ships did. There was a tale that back in the days of great exploration, that an A.I. controlling a then highly advanced ship killed off the crew for the sake of the mission. Such stories had probably deteriorated from historical fact into shallow legend, but the meaning behind them stayed the same.

"I hate being on ships where there are more than twenty onboard. Because then you're not a soldier, you're a number. Your existence is condensed into what you are, not who you are, and your every action is either determined or hopefully permitted by your faceless superiors." The detective said, remembering one of his earliest deployment recollections.

The lupine had always enjoyed working alone or at least in small groups. The jobs he often been given back in the army were ones that required such solitude that almost any other soldiers would fall on their knees begging to return home after just one day of wallowing in their own pitiful misery. Tyler didn't mind being alone for extended periods of time, but of course he worried for his own safety as the result of extended separations. He disliked having to engage with a variety of people he didn't know, and he trusted almost nobody in the entire Lylat except for Walter.

Tyler also lacked any close friends other than Walter, even his near relatives had little emotional connection to him, but the wolf didn't desire any nor did he mind it.

On the other hand, the panther had always been drawn towards duties which forced him to regularly converse and plan with others. It was this attitude which allowed him to meet Detective O'Donnell in the first place, along with another special person in his life he met inside the communications bay.

"I couldn't stand being so alone for so long… especially in the distant reaches of space. Unlike you, I feel uncomfortable when no one's around. I don't know whether to feel sorry for you or to feel jealous." Walter's statement almost invaded Tyler's threshold of personal space, but the lupine, tired and indifferent, didn't mind and instead went along with it.

"By the way uh… does your wife ever mind you staying out so long?" Tyler almost clawed himself after making the horrifying mistake of asking a personal question.

Walter smiled. "No, not at all. She thinks the more I hang around 'that weird schizoid buddy of yours', the more obligated I feel to be… intimate with her." He said, imitating his mate with girlish gestures and tones.

Tyler's face froze with indifference and embarrassment cobbled into one odd mixture. "I'm going to… stop talking now…"

The panther yawned as activity outside of the main convention hall had become all but nonexistent. The two detectives could hear the Phoenix executive giving a loud and verbose speech in the other room, but nothing seemed unusual.

Suddenly, the wolf's communicator flashed at the call of his Agency bound comrade. "Detective Tyler, we're good here, anything on your end?"

"Sorry Rotte, it's as boring as a lecture on atmospheric pressure."

"Good, let's hope it stays that way." The agent replied over the small device. "Agent Rotte, out."

Tyler sighed as he let his wrist hang limp. For what would seem to be hours, the two detectives would stand in wait, not knowing whether to hope for action or to hope for absolutely nothing. There came an answer very soon however, and they no longer had to wonder if anything would go wrong.

The answer came not in the form of words or sound, but in the form of a striking visual change… or the lack of one. The lights of the entire convention center flickered off, and everything became dark. Panic was the first instinctual reaction to the nearby crowd. Was it an attack? Was it a blackout? Shallow speculation was all the convention goers could comprehend; but looking deeper, the savvy detectives knew something else was amiss.

~X~X~X~X~X~

In the silence and darkness of a secluded hallway, heavy footsteps made their way quickly and quietly, their shadowy figures contrasting to the walls behind them. As a guard tried to make sense of the sudden loss of light, his sense of sight was disabled permanently as one of the shadowed figures plunged an esoterically shaped weapon into their unsuspecting victim.

Four soldiers moved in tight formation down the cold underground corridor under the main weapons convention floor system. With vigilant attention, they silently took down every confused soul in sight, except for one…

When they came to another room numbered perfectly for their arrival, they positioned themselves in front of the door, their sensors able to distinguish this one as the holder of their target.

"What now?" One of the young recruits asked, adjusting his low light vision receptors as his tail shook violently as a sign of nervousness.

"We take the doctor, and nothing else." Said a hardened veteran standing at the front of the formation, his paws grazing over the edge of his gun's purple ridged coolant disperser. "We got about four minutes before a QRF (quick reaction force) starts to sweep this area , if we want to get out in one piece, we need to stay a few steps ahead of them."

The soldiers all knew what they were there for, but only one knew what they would leave with. The mission was vague but direct, their objectives risky but solid. The hardened veteran felt no sympathy for whoever would end up with the shortest straw, he'd been in the same position before, and almost had been left to die once; he had been the direct result of someone else being chosen for the horrible fate.

One of the other soldiers, an anxious avian with feathers as dark as space, couldn't help but complain as the team positioned for the door breach. "Finally," He whispered, relieved to almost see the end to what seemed to be hardest mission he'd ever gone through. "Can't wait to get this damn collar off." He grabbed the metal ring around his neck. "1 surely knows how to conduct the mission in the worst way possible. I know it's supposed to 'motivate' me, but I don't see why I need it."

"Shut up 6…" Their leader muttered, not wanting to bring any more emotional trauma to himself than was needed. "For that comment you'll be our trail keeper on the way out."

The black avian cursed in an unrecognizable tongue. Not wanting to delay their job any further, the team moved in position for a breach. There was no room for error; if even the slightest mistake was made in the placement of the breaching device, the whole team would pay with their lives.

In charge of placing the advanced device was the nervous recruit, edging the jutting protrusion under the door, he prepared to pop off the hinges with a couple precision turns of the device. If it went wrong, the door would automatically seal itself due to the current emergency lockdown status each door was set to during times like these. The team held their breath; this was the moment of truth.

It only took a couple seconds for the real operation to finish. The heavy metal door intuitively snapped like it was made of paper. The device worked perfectly, and the team stormed in the darkened room with night vision on full.

Inside the waiting room, the team searched for their target. Fortunately for them, the job was made much easier due to the fact that there were only a few disoriented Cornerians trying to find their way around.

"You Dr. Holcomb?" The leader of the commando group asked a chameleon who was turning blue in fear. The chameleon instinctively turned his head to signal no, and the leader of the infiltration team wasted no time in kicking his soon unconscious face to the floor.

"Boss, I found 'him." Said one of the recruits, backing away to make sure he did not stand in the way of his superior.

"How can you tell?"

"He… has glasses…" The nervous recruit confirmed.

The team leader, who was a tall feline, with strength to match his gritty voice, neared the doctor. He remembered that muzzle from the short briefing he had received before the mission. His life, as well as everyone else's, depended on capturing him. "Well well Dr., looks like all that time practicing your speeches has gone to waste."

The doctor stood disillusioned and confused, unable to see who was speaking to him in the fearful absence of light.

"W-Who are you?"

"If I told you, you'd be even more confused." The team leader commented. "Now you can walk out of here with a gun to your back or slumped over in a pitiful display of pain." Keeping his word, the feline lifted a gun to the confused Dr.'s back.

"Where are we going?" The doctor asked, feeling as if his heart were about to burst from his chest as he was violently lifted by a powerful force.

"It's not too far... our ride's in the basement." The team leader said as they slowly exited the room checking the corners to make sure everything was clear. "Any more words and we'll have to silence you."

The frightful doctor had no other option than to submit in silence as his captors led the way.

"Good…" The feline infiltrator turned to face his avian comrade. "6… your job's to draw them off when they come looking. If they go after you, they'll never look for us. If you can lose them, meet at Fifth Junction. If you can't…" He ominously pointed to the large metal ring around the black avian's neck; signaling the dooming result of failure. If he were to be captured by the enemy, or even fail to return with his fellow soldiers, it would be all over for him.

As the group leader started to leave, he turned once more to face the brave bird. "Good luck…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

"I know, I know. Where's Dr. Holcomb?" Detective Tyler asked over his radio as rounded another corner, the flashlight on his gun shining brightly.

"He should be in level b1, if not, than he would be on the main floor." Agent Rotte replied with a cautious grasp of recent facts.

"The doctor should've been kept under tighter security! And what the hell happened to the power?"

"The engineers are checking that as we speak. It wasn't a power failure, someone sabotaged it from the inside. Detective, if there's an armed force down there, you have my authorization to take them down. Many of us can't reach the levels due to the lockdown… don't bother waiting for backup."

"Thanks sir, that's how I like it." Tyler put down the communicator.

At that moment, Tyler's primal instincts kicked in. He was no longer bound to simple rules of 'justice' imposed on him by others; this was him, in control of who lived and who died. There was no doubt in his mind that he would soon face opposition, the only questions were who, and how much.

The detective rounded another corner, where he found a lone figure standing in silence, as if waiting for him. "Hey, HEY!" Tyler yelled, ready to make the distinction between friend and foe. As his light shined on the dark figure, the darkness did not change, but only became a different darkness.

A raven, as dark as the sky in the deepest reaches of the Cornerian wilderness and as still as the calmest streams of Zoness stood ready for his fate to meet him. He did not fear the detective, nor did he jerk at the sight of his formidable weapon. It did not move him; the realization did not change his calm composure, he was at peace with what he would soon undertake.

"Get down on the ground or I will shoot!" Tyler yelled, still retaining the possibility this strange figure did not have to face the effect of his weapon. "GET DOWN!"

The avian did not move.

"GET! DOWN!"

Still unmoved, the dark avian slowly looked up to face his assailant. There was no fear, but only confidence in him.

"Damn it!"

The detective didn't hesitate like he had so many times before. He shot his weapon, and the flash of superheated plasma streaked across the hallway towards the static avian. But he still did not move.

In not an instant's time, the bolt from Tyler's gun dissipated after nearing the avian by only a couple feet. The sudden stop was initiated by the visibility of a glowing red defensive orb surrounding the smiling bird.

Tyler had only heard about such things in theory, that is, the newly developed and wildly underused barrier technologies. From what Tyler knew, these 'barriers' were actually devices which worked by neutralizing the effect of the bolt by 'capturing' it with an equally focused impulse on the negative scale based on the perimeter of the soldier's arm length reach. It was an amazing concept really; some were based on absorption, others on deflection, the latter being less common due to its low reliability.

"You fight like a coward, afraid of what you face and only approaching it at a distance dependant on your own need for continued safety." The raven said in a flowing and poetic manner.

The detective was not defused in any manner; instead, it only prompted him to move the matter his way. "Look who's talking… How about you power that device down and we can talk this over?" Tyler tempted with the weak sense of regressed diplomacy.

The undaunted raven tugged on his collar. "That would be pretty fun; I'm sure your 'friends' would have much to say, but I'm afraid I have places to be." The raven charged at the detective with a frenzied speed. Tyler barely had time to knock off two shots before the avian reached him; of course the shots had no effect on the mysterious infiltrator.

Instead of swiping Tyler with the large and now exposed weapon, the raven instead leaped right over the detective, becoming upside down as he passed over him. The movement was so fast that the lupine barely noticed his gun missing from one second to another.

"Wha?" Tyler said at the realization of his disarming. The strange infiltrator was not fighting with him but toying with him! As the detective turned around to see what the dark avian was up too, he saw him putting good use to that knife like instrument.

The raven briefly cackled as he picked apart the weapon with his knife, tossing the now useless parts aside. He had just destroyed the detective's gun!

"_Oh, it's on now…" _

Detective Tyler charged the avian, but the black feathered intruder merely caught him running and turned him horizontal from the chest down. It was so smooth, so graceful how the raven fought hand to hand.

Never willing to be bested, the detective rose again to his feet, but now, the avian had decided it would be best to flee.

"Ha! You're scared! Come back here and-"

'_DRRHDDRRH—DRRZHH_'

The detective held the communicator up to his muzzle as he ran down the dark corridors. "Agent, I've found the intruder and I'm…"

Static clouded the agent's interruption "_Detective…. coming… can't get to…" _

"Agent?"

"_Trying t… jam our sig… in-…"_

"Agent!" Tyler yelled before loosening his fixation with the communicator.

The signal was definitely being disabled by a precision frequency disruptor, crippling all forms of communication inside the convention.

"Damn it!" The detective cursed before running after the dark infiltrator.

It did not take much time for Tyler to find where the bird had ran off too, he could almost smell his path as a predator smells the trail of his prey. Even in the darkness of the basement corridors, Tyler's eyes were able to adjust very well, as if he were now set in a primal hunt of the night. He was alone, away from his pack; but he didn't need them, this enemy was surrounded by him.

Left, right, and left again, the whole floor never changed. There were no signs of life and only a couple signs of death; all Tyler was focused on was getting to his prey.

What gave it away was the sound of a heavy door moving after being lifted via emergency latch. With such heavy force closing down, it could only mean someone was trying to escape, and fast.

Tyler ran to the source of the loud noise; his prey had made the dire mistake of giving away its position through sound and movement. After he ran for an exhaustingly long time, he approached the thin metal door which lay surprisingly not too far from where the wolf already stood. Immediately, the lupine charged for the steel gate.

He pulled the emergency latch with all his might, but there was a limit to how fast the door would rise. Every second he spent here was another he would lose when trying to find his victim; there was no time to rest, only time to chase. With a loud groan, the lupine pushed the vertical door up right before passing under it. The door closed behind him with a loud thud equal to what drew him to there in the first place.

The door opened to a large underground area, oddly enough lit with a soft red emergency light. As Tyler made his way through the empty expanse, he searched for every sign of movement. He even kept an eye on his shadow to make sure it did not run away.

This place was even colder and emptier than the last, and the darkness almost seemed to be at home. It also looked much different than the convention flooring, as the walls changed from a solid steel gray to a chalky brown color. As Tyler moved on, he was frozen still when the ground began to shake and vibrate.

The minimal vibrations were accompanied by a high pressure force coming to a quick stop. Tyler realized this was the sound of a monorail being halted by strong magnetic brakes. He had approached the train station, where untold amounts of citizens piled on every day to avoid the chaotic traffic on the streets above. The walls here were old and worn, every dozen years or so, the trains were renovated, but the maintenance areas always stayed the same.

Knowing the infiltrator had nowhere to go; Tyler faced the only means of exiting the maintenance room. A manual door at the end of the long maintenance walkway, still half opened, almost inviting the detective.

As the lupine sprinted towards the door, he wondered where the raven would be escaping to. He must've known where this place was beforehand if he had planned his escape, but something which struck the detective was that both he and the avian seemed to be alone. was no longer on the detective's priority list, instead, he'd been replaced with this elusive stranger.

Tyler barreled through the door, which was a sign it was left unlocked, meaning that someone had tampered with it earlier. The detective almost fell to the ground once he saw what immense change from the cold and empty maintenance room to the loud, open expanse of moving feet. Now he was in a crowd of Cornerians, all headed to who knows where.

Tyler remembered there was supposed to be a race going on at the track today, and this was the time for everyone to leave and go back home. The stood tall trying to look over the heads of the crowd to maybe search for his escapee, but he was nowhere to be found; the trail had been lost in an endless stream of even more trails.

Tyler ran instinctively to the nearest place where he could get information. Hopefully his government employed kin would be able to help him find his target. He neared the information booth, which had been recently filled with distressed citizens arguing about their metro card's payment validity. Perhaps those station workers needed some excitement in their lives.

"Hey, HEY!" Tyler yelled, waving his arms at the people inside the hexagonal booth as he shifted through the ocean of bodies.

"Look! It's another one of those crazy people." Said one of the workers inside the glass chamber.

"Hey! Listen to me! Get security!" The detective said, showing his badge.

Immediately, the attention of the station manager was captured. The exited the chamber to see what was the matter.

"What is it er… Detecive …O'Dinol?" The aged beagle asked, squinting at the badge through his glasses.

"I need to find a black avian; he's running away as we spe-" Just as Tyler said this, he made eye contact with a certain someone entering the train as inconspicuously as possible. "Damn it!"

The detective broke off from the manager, and ran as fast is his legs could carry him to the lower level where the monorail was. Not wanting to brave the crowded escalator, he braced his legs as he fell down the overhanging ledge and onto the lower level rolling before continuing his way onward.

His heart almost stopped when he noticed the trains doors were beginning to close. Even if he tried, they packed in there like sardines, and there was no possibility they could make any more room.

The train started to move, but not before the detective reached the door and started banging on it as hard as he could without breaking it. "Stop the train! Stop the train!"

He knew none of it was in control; the acceleration of the long stretched vehicle was greater than his, and it only took a few seconds for its velocity to become impossible for him to match.

"No, NO!" Tyler yelled as he saw the only means of finding his escapee escaping through the nearby tunnel. There was nothing he could do now, he had already escaped. Stopping the train would be impossible, since it was now in complete control of someone else.

Tyler fell to his knees. Once again, his prey had slipped right through his hands.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Far away from the convention station, a black raven stepped off the platform of Fifth Junction. He peered over the edge before slowing his descent during his way down. He hit the ground about twenty feet below; he stood completely stable as he stood up.

"Just in time…" He noted when watching his team's escape vehicle backing into his vicinity.

The loading door opened, and there were four soldiers standing inside, as well as a shaken Dr. Holcomb.

"6… we were about to think you weren't coming." The team leader said as he realized this was the most painful part of the mission. "Fortunately, you'll be drinking with us tonight." The strong feline turned to another one of the recruits. "3, would you mind helping 6 onto our vehicle?"

"uh… of course sir…" The relieved recruit helped pick his comrade up onto the ship. The raven hi-fived his other friends once he found a secure place to be seated in the small craft.

"Now 3, get off."

"Sir?"

"Get off… our ship."

Confused, the recruit leaped off the loading platform and onto the concrete ground below. "What's going on? What are you…"

The leader took out his hand cannon with a sorrowful gaze. He knew what he had to do next was not by any means easy. "There are only four seats, I'm sorry."

"Wha…" The look of the recruit's face turned from confusion to horror once he understood what this meant. "No! Please! Don't!"

The leader tried to take his eyes off the poor mercenary. But the image stuck to his mind too greatly. He would have to end the poor recruit's life quickly and painlessly. The magnum blaster was now in the leader's hands.

"No please!" The recruit begged as he covered his eyes. "Just take this collar off and let me be! I promise I'll never tell anyone or do anything! I did what I was supposed to, just let me live!"

The blaster shook in the leader's hand. He had killed many times before, but doing it in cold blood was far different. His orders were to return, but with only five. His mission was a success, but the terms had not yet been met. It was now that he had to leave the weakest of the group behind in order to strengthen the others.

The sight of the begging mercenary crippled the leader, who couldn't help but feel sympathy for him. He almost pulled the trigger, but the mere thought of him once being in the same position shook the gun from his hand. The leading feline opened a box and threw a key towards the weak recruit. "Mr. Doles has no room for failures." A tear could be seen falling down his eye before the loading door closed up. "When the time comes for a revolution, be ready to stand."

Shocked and relieved, the nervous recruit used the key to remove the collar before throwing it as far as he could down a low structural level in the Cornerian city. He was free.

And he ran.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **So? What do you think? **

**REVIEWING IS MANDATORY!**


	6. A Glimmer of Hope

Author's Notes: **I know I'm releasing this one a bit late… in the day I mean. Although I'm sure you don't care, you're to busy writing long, detailed reviews! So all you weirdos out there who like to do everything in the middle of the night, well… Forget I ever said anything, BLUE LAMP!**

~  
A Glimmer of Hope

The dark lupine detective scanned the upper hood of the car once more, covering every bit of its charred windshield in full view. The air around him was thick and moist, which meant the smell was one of the first noticeable aspects of the damaged vehicle. "You know, I'm starting to see a pattern here…" He said when he noticed his partner approaching from the walkway to the rail station lot.

"What's that?" Walter asked.

"Explosions and cars… damn it, now I'm gonna be paranoid if I think too much about it." Detective Tyler said before a brief sigh as he turned from the car. "The only difference is that this explosion failed to do much damage, and that it came from the outside and not inside. This wasn't a car bomb; it's more like an anti-personnel grenade if anything…" He said, collaborating his own observations with his former EOD training.

The panther neared closer to the vehicle to get a better look. "Yeah, I was kind of thinking that too… whoever tried to attack this poor woman really doesn't know how to make a car go boom." Walter noted, peering back at the disgruntled and somewhat shocked owner of the car looking worried as she kept her three little kits near her.

"You know what Don?"

"What?"

"There's another thing I noticed about the similarities between the two bombings."

Detective Tyler rolled his eyes. "I already told you, they're not connected. This could've been committed by a bunch of teenage delinquents, the other one was definitely done by someone who'd gone through extensive training."

"No, I don't mean like that, I mean look at who they're done towards. I mean the first one… Vixy… she had a kid, right?"

"Yeah," Tyler acknowledged. "I think so…"

"Well this target does too, three in fact."

Even with all the hunches and foreshadowing, Tyler didn't see where his partner was leading to. "And...?"

"And? Don't you see that children are involved in this? Can you imagine what they're thinking, what they're feeling? These kids will no doubt be scared to even touch a car for months, and the one with Mrs. McCloud will no doubt be scarred for life! Can you imagine how miserable it must be for that kid to grow up without his mother? What he'll miss?"

"I know… it doesn't sound good, but you can't help it. These things happen all the time, yet the only way we can react is by bringing the assailants to justice."

Walter was not pleased with the response, but it was most likely the only true one he would get. "Yeah, I know, but… why them? Why couldn't it be someone who no one else depends on? I've realized that many of these homicides are done to people with families, and the simple act of killing one person affects so many in often traumatic ways…" The panther leaned down, beginning to look depressed and deflated. "I can't help but feel responsible for them in a way, why did it have to be them instead of someone else?"

The observant lupine almost took such a concept in a personal manner. It was true he never desired to have close relationships and he couldn't help placing himself in Walter's theoretical position.

"You know Walter; I've killed many people in my life… And I know for certain that I'm responsible for damaging the lives of a few of their relatives through that. I know this for certain because when I was in the army, they specifically searched for people who could be gone the next day and few would care about their disappearance. There weren't too many of us who… did what I had to do, but we got the job done…"

Walter noticed the uncovered flaw in the detective's connection. Why did he mention the army? What did that have to do with the people he'd seen him kill before? "The army? What does that have to do with army? I thought you gunned down armed criminals, not armed soldiers."

Detective Tyler returned with a blank stare. The information past this point was what he would never be allowed to disclose. "It's… well…" he couldn't continue, there was nothing for him to say. His memory thought back to the blurred sight of a dead body, slain by Tyler's own doing. He was thrown down to his knees, wishing the day had never come as he wallowed in a shallow pool of red blood. "We're closing in to Fichina territory; I don't want to go back there…" His mind tried to push back a remission of another horrible and intrusive thought. "I can't go back there…"

Walter nodded before heading off in the direction of the chief who was at the moment talking to some emergency personnel. He knew that whenever his friend mentioned that frozen planet, that he was forbidden to speak any further. "Alright… let me know if you see anything else strange… I'll be… over here pretending to be busy." He said as he walked onto the ramp leading to the train terminal above them.

~X~X~X~X~X~

'_Hug the corner, hug the corner… don't be seen, don't make eye contact, be invisible… don't be seen, NO NO DON't look over NOOO!…' _The lupine thought as he moved further in to the Fichina based outpost.

"Sergeant? Hey Don! Come here and have a seat!" Someone said as they waved for the lupine to join him at the empty table in the mess hall. There were no real set times for everyone to eat, they pretty much came and went whenever they felt like it, meaning that the large arrangement of six, eight chair tables was never quite reached in a facility so small.

Tyler approached the waving Cornerian, who was the only one the entire room except for another creep who was hanging out alone in the corner.

"How cold is it out there?" The cheery corporal inquired.

"Is that the only question I ever get asked? Why can't I ever get asked, 'did you find what we we're looking for out there?', or 'are you the one who ordered meat lovers pizza?'" Tyler said, taking a seat and bracing for the inevitable unveiling of something called dinner. "Speaking of food…" He stuck his tongue out at the nearby sight of a box full of the dreaded ration blocks. "Not again… I'm tired of Fichina Casserole, when do we get the good stuff back?"

"Two weeks, I should know since I manage the outpost's supplies. Every month or so, they send the food down from space via artificial meteorite, how cool is that?"

Tyler bit down into molded block of pure nutrition. The only though which kept his gag reaction at bay was the knowledge that the first bite was always the worst. "Couldn't they just fly it down? I'm sure that way they could give us… you know, real food. And why couldn't they give these things taste? We have the technology to conquer planets, so why do these still taste like petrified clay molds?"

"Beats me… actually I think they do it because it's cheap. If they served us five-star meals every day, they wouldn't be able run those cool parades. Believe it or not, the stuff we use is crazy expensive, I mean can you imagine how much a three ton laser drill costs to operate daily?"

"Yeah, I guess your right…" the Sergeant admitted, regretfully continuing the slow process of devouring the bland mold. "But they get to eat good food on other planets; I thought this stuff was for soldiers on the field to eat without having to prepare a fire or anything." The mere thought of tasty food made Tyler's tongue watered as if Pavlov had just rung his bell. "At least they could give us actual meat, or perhaps cook something for once."

Tyler's taste buds had become accustomed to 'Fichina Casserole' as it was so vehemently called by those who were forced to eat it. It was a gray block, very much like a protein bar, but looking more reminiscent of edible marble. Such ready to eat meals could easily be stored in cold environments because it didn't matter if it was crushed, frozen, or even old; it still served its basic purpose in the same way.

"You know, I feel sorry for you. When the shipments come, the good stuff's the first to go, that means when you're outside freezing your tail off, we at the base are already finding hiding places to store our goodies to save for lockdown."

And then, while in the midst of thinking about food, Tyler got an idea. He was going to get some real food, complaining was of course the first option, but he didn't want to stoop that low. No he had to have a plan, some method that would benefit him without having to pay."By the way, when's lockdown happening? I heard something about another storm coming in."

The sound of a feminine voice echoed through the mess hall. "_Attention all base personnel, lockdown will commence in four hours. Please have everyone inside one hour prior to lockdown, thank you_."

Tyler sighed.

"Does that answer your question?"

"It does, although I don't know why it came from the only female on this entire outpost."

"Silly, she's the one who always communicates the orders by loudspeaker." The corporal rested his chin on his open palm. "You know, every time I go to the communications room, I… get a glance of her… try to ask her questions that I already know, stay around for as long as I can, pretend to be busy but still act laid-back, you know what I mean Don?"

"You're… obsessed with her?"

The now nervous corporal shook his head. "well… no, not really, I mean kind of… sometimes when you see someone… like that… you just know, you know?"

"No…"

"No?"

"No."

"Hmmm…"

In the heat of the awkwardness, Sergeant Tyler stood up, clearing the miniscule mess he'd made with diligence. He didn't care for romantic relationships in the slightest, it wasn't that he was afraid or appalled, he simply acted indifferent towards it.

"Really? You've never met anyone?"

"I didn't say that… I've met many people before… just not anyone whom I've had strong feelings for."

"Well that's strange… I'm sorry…" the dumbfounded corporal couldn't find words appropriate for continuing.

The moments after that were somewhat faded, but Tyler remembered him leaving the mess hall, but being interrupted at the last second. He was passing through to the exit when the lone coyote at the table called for him in a raspy whisper.

"Hey… hey." He caught Tyler's attention. "I heard you were talking about food over there."

Tyler looked back at the corporal who was just now standing. It seemed the sole purpose he was here was to wait for him.

"I'm sorry, am I not allowed to talk? I'm not on duty right now."

"No, I'm talking about getting the _good stuff_."

Tyler put his outstretched arm towards the coyote. "Listen private, I don't want any part in whatever strange, exotic drug you managed to smuggle onto here."

"I don't mean_ that_ good stuff, I mean _the_ good stuff. You know, what everyone fights each other to have whenever they send some down; the food they get to eat on other planets, the food they get to eat on Corneria, the food officers get to eat."

Tyler looked away with disgust. "Yeah… officers…" He secretly believed that every night the four officers of the outpost would gather themselves and hide away in the bunker, playing party games such as 'watch the incompetent engineer try to fix the heating system for the billionth time' on the security camera. "Alright, what's your plan, let's get to the point."

"My plan is to fake a shortage, if we can convince the Major that we're running out of food, he'll order for our boys in space to launch a supply drop down here."

"How are we going to take away two weeks' worth of food without anyone noticing? Everyone here keeps a close eye on logistics."

"Don't worry about the details, I got that all planned out. We're not going to hide the food, the storm is. Before lockdown, we hide all the food outside; then when they discover something's wrong with the number of supplies, they'll have no choice but to call for another drop."

Sergeant Tyler viewed the plan with the possibility that it was a trick. He'd heard of soldiers being lured into schemes by others so that a superior officer could inflict his brand of discipline when he got bored. But this was more on the spur of the moment; the coyote may have been a shady character, but Tyler wanted real food, and he wanted it badly.

"I don't know, it sounds like that could go horribly wrong. I've heard stories of soldiers switching weapons out which have ended in horror; these plans usually have some dangerous flaw in them."

"Hey, your job's simple. All you have to do is ask the Major if he'll call for better food, and if that doesn't work, we'll go with my plan to fake the shortage, how does that sound?"

The offer was mighty tempting to the lupine; even with the meager military pay he earned plus his hazard bonus, they still fed him and the rest of the soldiers at the base food that was probably as old as they were. He sometimes wondered if this was their way of testing experimental torture devices.

Tyler shook his head. "I don't know, I don't really like the idea, but if improves the quality of the food…" At that moment, Tyler gave in. "Alright, I'll ask the Major… I was thinking about taking a quick nap, but I still got time to waste."

"Good…" The coyote said as he waved Tyler off. "We're gonna need some spare time."

Before Tyler left, he turned to ask another question. "By the way, why me? Why not someone else?"

"As a Sergeant, your voice carries more weight. Besides, you're one of the few here who actually has to go outside and the cold and sacrifice your own comfort. I'm sure the Major will have more sympathy towards you."

"I'm not doing this because of a higher grade of sympathy than others; I'm doing it because I'm damn tired of Fichina Casserole."

"Whatever you say Sergeant…" The coyote said as Tyler's memory faded in a similar way to the distance between the two soldiers. "Just get that food…"

Sergeant Tyler walked away, his mind remembering his mother's words about how his once picky eating will one day get the best of him.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Detective Tyler O'Donnell gathered his notes as he stepped away from the slightly charred vehicle. "Alright Mrs.… Steinbeck." He said, approaching the worried mother and her kits. "Your car will need to be fixed a little, nothing too expensive. The explosive which detonated last night was what we like to call a precision directional focused device."

The spotted ocelot looked back in confusion. "Wh- what does that mean?"

The detective handed the woman his written report about the incident. "It means that if someone really wanted to damage your car, they would've used something with a little more firepower; therefore, whoever did it had either done it unintentionally, or they were truly stupid."

"It doesn't matter why they did it, someone tried to destroy my car!"

"Now now, calm down ma'am…" Tyler said with his paw outstretched to the disgruntled ocelot. "Your car's in no further danger." He leaned closer to the worried mother, whispering in her ear. "But unfortunately, your wallet might as well be held hostage with that car damage." As he backed away, he could see her begin to cry.

The lupine couldn't help but feel instant sympathy for the high strung feline. He walked back over to her and handed the Cornerian equivalent of a hundred dollars to the sobbing woman. "Don't worry, we'll find who did this." He said, without truly knowing whether or not they would find the culprit.

The female ocelot looked up from her tear ridden muzzle to accept the money. "Thank you."

"The city has many good places for repairs. We've gathered all the evidence we need so you can have it back. I'd recommend going over to Anura Mechanics, they have the best service this side of the planet."

"Thanks again." The woman nodded before turning away to receive a call.

As the detective looked back at the charred hood of the car, it was such a curious sight. Not only did that catch his eye, but so did the glimmering shine which came from the corner of a nearby roof. It was almost calling to him, not just because it looked shiny but also because it seemed to be in the perfect place, for what he did not know.

"Are you a policeman?"

Tyler looked around to see where the squeaky voice was coming from. It was not until he looked down did he see where the source of the sound was.

"Are you a policeman?" The small kitten asked.

"Uh… yeah, I'm a policeman." The detective answered.

"Do you kill people?" The little ocelot became mesmerized at the sight of Tyler's holstered gun. "Can I see the gun?"

"Slow down kid… one question at a time…" Tyler said, leaning down to reach the child's level of height.

"Ok… do you kill bad guys?"

Tyler shook his head, although the strict verbal answer would've been contradictory to such a gesture. "Well, we don't always know who the bad guy is… It could be anyone."

"Even me?" The kit was stricken with a scared look in his eyes.

"If you've… done something wrong… but you're not a bad guy, are you?"

The spotted youngster failed to give an answer.

Tyler felt the small kit was keeping something from him; nothing too serious but on a more immature level. After all, the worst a seven year old could do was walk around the neighborhood toppling trash cans. The detective recalled his nephew having been much trouble before, but his doings were so organized that the lupine couldn't help but comparing Wolf to himself.

"You know, part of my job is to tell when someone is keeping information from me."

The young ocelot looked up at Tyler once more. "Well… I did do something once, it was yesterday actually." He again looked at the detective with a now more worried gaze. "You're not going to arrest me, are you?"

Tyler laughed. He then replied in a slow and calm manner. "Don't be silly… what did you do?"

The ocelot looked down at the pavement. "I… sort of took a candy bar from the store when nobody was looking."

The detective slowly nodded. "I see…" He took his notebook out and pretended to write in it.

"But… um sir?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever killed someone?"

Tyler looked away. He didn't want to answer that question, the kit wouldn't understand; few would, which was one of the reasons he usually kept quiet about his work past and present. He decided it would be best not to tell him. "I've shot people before, but that was because they endangered my own life." The answer seemed to satisfy the child.

"Cool…" The kit said as he began to walk off. Nothing else was spoken between him and the detective, nothing else was needed.

Tyler turned his attention back to the source of the glinting light. The sky was about to be overtaken by a cloudy rain coming from coast; it was the same weather which had clouded their day the morning Vixy McCloud was murdered. The similarities were striking, except this time it wasn't so lethal.

Tyler needed to see what was up on the roof near the station parking lot. He called for Ulrich, the forensics examiner to help him.

"You want to what?"

"Get onto that building, I think I saw something up there."

"Saw what?" The lizard tried to get a glimpse of what Tyler was pointing at; however, the newly drawn out absence of light shaded by the sky's cover hindered the glare.

Tyler saw a long metal pipe hanging down from the metal building. He leaped onto the pipe, holding onto it with knees as he shimmied up to reach the thin ledge jutting out on the next level. It was tiring, but it was also the only apparent way to reach the top.

"Hey Don,"

"I'm fine Ulrich…"

"I think it would be better if…"

"I can do it… don't worry."

The detective reached the ledge about five meters high, almost halfway. He hugged the wall and walked across the side before climbing up another set of gutters. For every meter higher, an intense amount of energy was expelled, but he kept pressing on. He took a deep breath as he approached a set of giant letters protruding from the side of the building. He held on to a 'D' after walking over the other set of letters and pulled himself up, grunting as he reached the top. He breathed heavily when he stood up high above the lower lot. He could see the taller towers of the city arranged in a certain hexagonal shape from this height.

'_Now to find the source of that shine'_ he thought.

He went over to the corner of his building, a long smile finding a home on his muzzle. He picked up a large piece of metal shrapnel with a number conspicuously printed on it. It's trajectory from the top of the nearby car was absolutely perfect, he'd found a part of the bomb.

In the other bombing, the explosion produced no inherent shrapnel, as it was designed to do such. This however, was not meant to eliminate a vehicle, but instead a person. The next important piece of a puzzle had been found, though the detective knew not if it were to ever be completed.

"Hey Tyler!"

"What is it Ulrich?"

"I was trying to tell you something!"

"What?"

"There's a ladder on the other side of the building… I tried to tell you!"

The detective looked behind him.

"Huh… figures…" The detective then headed towards the nearby ladder, evidence in hand.

~X~X~X~X~X~


	7. Then It's War

Then It's War

The rest of the day was foggy and clouded in confusion. Tyler spent much of it waiting for the results in the lab to clear up the whereabouts of the mysterious explosive device. He sat down at his desk, getting back to the endless streams of paperwork which had clotted the bloodstream of his normal duties. He sat back and shook his head; such a big mess.

What a strange turn of events that had occurred in the past few days. So much death, so little information; the road to 'Mr. Doles' had now been extended into the reaches of space, finding him now would be almost impossible, not to mention the trouble it would take to reach him. But whatever it took to find him, to take him down, the detective was ready.

The detective was hopelessly behind on his own work. Most of the time he was either too busy working on a case to care about such menial things; however, it always came back for him, he only wondered if the ever growing reports would ever cease. All he could do was to make the best of it, but he was hoping that one day he would be excused from those parasitic disturbances called paperwork.

In strode his feline partner, much in a similar way to the day the car bombing took place. Tyler couldn't help but compare his partner's exact movements to that day, as if everything was going into another remission. Everything felt the same; the sky outside was heavy and bleak, the coffee in the panther's hand had an unmistakable scent of Papetoon brew, and the waiting itself was diluted with a minor tinge of a wavering thought.

"Hey, Tyler, they're ready for you in the lab."

The weary lupine looked up from his work with an almost withheld sense of eagerness. "Walter, c'mon, you never bring me coffee unless something's strange." The panther froze in his tracks. "Well… it's about time… did they narrow it down?"

"I don't know, Ulrich looked really excited though, and you know there's only one way to make his face eerily light up to the point where he needs sandpaper to fix it."

Detective Tyler took a moment to process the statement. "…giant… marshmellows?"

"Ok, two ways… but you know you're not allowed to have food in the lab." Walter winked as his feet turned to leave the office. "And one more thing, the chief wants to see you after you go the lab, and he said your full name, so whatever it is it can't be good."

"Wait, Walter… I need to ask you something…"

"Oooh, does it involve… juicy gossip?"

"No no, not that. I was just wondering about these organized crime groups."

"Crime groups? No, we're talking like… war bands."

"You know what I mean… pirates, bandits, mercenaries, teenagers, they're all the same."

"Well, not really… I mean fringe groups like Warlord Freeman's work beyond the boundaries of Cornerian control whereas crime groups and gangs tend to be more localized. Those people who infiltrated the convention last night weren't criminals, they were soldiers, which means we need soldiers to take them down, not detectives."

"Hmmm… soldiers…" Detective Tyler thought once more about Agent Rotte's forthcoming offer. It was then he realized how to take someone like Mr. Doles out. He had to be a soldier, not a detective. He thought back to the words Mr. McCloud gave him after the death of his wife. Tyler would bring justice not in the form of handcuffs, but from the tip of his gun. The way it would be distributed would be a recall of their first encounter; he'd be lucky to suffer such a short end.

He could not hesitate, he couldn't freeze and rationalize the situation; he knew what he had to do, and when the time came, he had to act.

Detective Tyler shook his head, clearing it from lingering stray thoughts. "Fine… I'll be down there soon I guess." The black and gray lupine regretfully returned to his work. He still had a long way to go, but hopefully he could remove the non-essential alerts. When he had finally shuffled through to the bottom in a quick estimation scan, he looked in horror at final document.

"What the-? Forty-one and a half counts of workplace gender discrimination?!"

~X~X~X~X~X~

The lab area was clean and polished no doubt due to the forensic team's OCD nature. A soft glow came from each corner of the room, and every setting was filled with analytical equipment and every enclosure lined with complex instruments.

"I don't believe it; this metal must have the tensile strength of rice cakes it bends so easily." Ulrich examined the explosive fragment with a close eye. "It looks as if it were built primarily out of scrap material; almost every part certainly came from a different place. But what I found more interesting was its place of origin." He brought up a large picture on a touchscreen; it was a bulky looking tracking device. "I pulled up information on the residual serial number you found on top of that roof; care to guess what it is?" He said, looking towards Detective O'Donnell.

"Just tell me." Tyler answered in a cold and indifferent voice. "I don't want to get muddled up in guessing games."

Ulrich showed a sense of disappointment. "This here is the remains of a CT-83 prisoner detention device, please tell me you know what that is, the official description's like… ten pages."

"It's a… shock collar right?"

"Precisely! They once used these to keep unruly prisoners at bay, it basically eliminated the need to build costly fences; but ever since they were banned, some began using them for… slightly different purposes."

"Get to the point, what are the 'slightly different purposes'?" Tyler didn't desire to get caught up in a discussion of details; he wanted the facts and nothing more.

"Alright, geez you're no fun…" Ulrich grumbled and sighed before sloshing over to the preserved remains of the collar. "Explosives… pirates sometimes pack these things with explosives, you know, low grade stuff, things they can get their hands on. It is modified in a way so that when a certain button is pressed, or when it leaves the range of a beacon…"

"Boom?" Tyler interjected.

"Boom." Ulrich nodded.

"I see… so what's the connection between this and what happened last night at the weapons convention?"

"Security footage showed the infiltrators were something around their necks… it's sick, and it's messed up, but it's their way of… motivation."

"Force them out there and tell them to come back or else their brains get to be projected onto the nearest wall…" The detective tightened his voice. "brutal…"

"Yeah, remember we're not dealing with your typical crooks, we're dealing with some of the meanest assholes in the whole Lylat."

Tyler was slowly building up rage with a precision aim towards Mr. Doles and his entire crew. They wouldn't get away with it… not as long as he lived and there was spare ammunition in his gun. The raven whom had escaped from him, he would pay… the infiltration team which had abducted Dr. Holcomb last night at the convention would all get their own brand of the lupine's vengeance, one way or another.

"I mean… how bad do you have to be to threaten your own soldiers with death? Is it not enough to throw innocent people into the crossfire?" Tyler could see the forensic analyst was also speaking in great anger.

"But… he didn't die… the collar exploded alone. Why?"

"Maybe it was a bluff… make them believe they're in real danger and then when the job's done, have a good laugh and throw the collars away."

"I don't know… if it was a bluff, why even care to add explosives?" the confused lupine shook his head.

"These er… private military types tend to be about as ruthless as they can get… if that means killing their own soldiers to better the rest… so be it…"

"But why? What does it do but thin their numbers?"

"It desensitizes them… makes them comfortable with killing, what greater test than to commit it on their own?"

"Damn it!" The detective yelled as he threw his fist back at the wall. "I'm gonna find that guy… I wish I could hunt him down… he's the source of this, Vixy, Holcomb, everything! It's time to stop this madness and bring justice."

Ulrich looked somewhat scared at the detective's intense reaction. "You're not the only one you know. Mr. D- Warlord Freeman has lots of rivals, it's one of the reasons they're unable to unite under one leader, they're all too busy fighting themselves!"

Detective Tyler had grasped the concept multiple times during his years in the army. Rouge factions would sprawl up here and there, but most of the time they were either instantly extinguished by the unstoppable juggernaut which was the Cornerian military, or they were slowly strangled by inner conflicts and petty wars with each other. Names would come and go, sometimes resurfacing, but usually in the form of a pathetic wannabe.

It was common for Cornerian presence to be challenged every once in a while by so called 'generals' and warlords attempting to usurp control over parts of land or parts of space. However, there were certain zones which had become fodder for late night sob stories about horrific hostage situations and unbelievably contentious raids by swiftly moving pirates. These almost always lived a short lifespan, serving in the end as a dark and violent example to those who dare follow the same destructive path.

But in the recent years, during the time in which Andross had been 'executed' by the highest authority, it had become all too quiet. It was almost as if the pirates had become bored of fighting and instead had resorted to sitting around and waiting to be attacked. Corneria's official stance was more of a reactive one instead of a proactive one. So much time and resources had been wasted guarding undisputed territories and peaceful lands that the military as a whole was spread very thin and somewhat divided.

Once you left the Cornerian controlled zones, localized forces had no obligation to help your ship or caravan even if you desperately needed it; they were only mandated to operate within a certain range, anything beyond that was up to a handful of decision makers and a quick single calculation of the possible dangers. Sure it was tough, and yes there had been numerous instances in which the integrity of the Cornerian army had been questioned, but often, fears were deflected either by elaborate military parades, staged minor exploits barely crossing the borderline definition of conflict, and if it was really scandalous, perhaps you'd get some 'missing' Cornerians the very next day.

It was a little corrupt, true, it was lazy, but at least the General never went into full panic launch-our-bad-boys-at-'em-now mode… yet. The main focus was to keep anything from getting out of hand, in fact, most of the real combat fell to the hired guns and mercenary groups often employed by the Cornerian military.

The angered lupine fell into a calmer state, intellectualizing his emotional reaction and thereby making it obsolete. He needed not to seek revenge, only justice… this wasn't his fight, it was that of those who had lost loved ones and of those who would undoubtedly be affected in the future if this went on; he was merely a weapon, a tool, no different than his placement while serving seven long, cold years under at least twelve different commanders. He was not a soldier, he was a weapon in someone else's war, the real difference was that he would fly through Sector Z to bring justice.

"Tyler, Tyler? Don?"

"What…"

"You know… Agent Rotte was waiting outside for you to finish."

The detective looked back upon the lizard in a strange mix of confusion and realization. "Why? What does he-"

"Tyler, I overheard him talking with one of his colleagues over his transmitter, talking about you. I tried to listen in longer, but I still had work to do."

The concept had finally begun to sink in to the detective, after all he was chosen for the position because of a quick intuition. He knew now, he knew Rotte had plans, and that he wanted him, he couldn't help but feel already connected to something else, something other than a case. No longer was he bound to a case; it had grown and manifested until it could not be sustained inside such a small sphere of influence in which the detective reigned.

It was not a case, now it was a mission.

The lupine nodded while casually glancing at the nearby exit. "Hmmm… I see…" He started to walk away, but soon felt an unmistakable weight on his right shoulder.

"Tyler…"

"What?"

"I… don't see this ending well… just… if you do go, be careful. You'll be with the worst the Lylat has to offer, if you intend to blend in like Agent Rotte was suggesting…"

"You said it yourself… Warlord Freeman has a bunch of other enemies to worry about, who said I couldn't join merely to advance a common goal?"

"That's not what I mean Tyler… these… pirates would stab you in the back just as soon as they're done using you. They could kill you in cold blood and go to bed wearing your clothes. You saw what they do with those collars, they use them on their own people!"

Tyler nodded, retaining the information before returning a similar gesture to one of his few long-time friends. "We'll see… we'll see."

The detective then turned and promptly exited the lab, almost getting his tail caught between the elevator doors.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Hey, Detective…"

"Oh, Agent Rotte, hello."

"You know I just talked with some of my contacts and they all say tomorrow's the best time to start going after Warlord Freeman. If we want to stop this menace, we need to have time on our side."

"That fast? I don't need any intrusive screenings? No soul crushing training routines?"

"No, nothing exciting… I'm the one who had to slave through the process of recommending you for the mission, you are coming with me, aren't you?

At that moment, the lupine was still relatively undecided on the issue, but he knew enough to give an instinctive answer. "Yeah, sure…" It was only after he spoke it that he realized the weight of what he was saying. He was accepting a transition, not only in his career but in his life. He longed for the taste of adventure once more, but his final days on Finchina squeezed the last essence of hope out of his juice box. The chance to hunt Warlord Freeman was a once in a lifetime chance, one which he deep down could not stand to reject or obstruct.

"Well, that's great!" Agent Rotte exclaimed. "Should I meet you here tomorrow? Or should I stalk you until the time's right?"

_Creepy…_

"The first one please…"

"Great, can't wait 'till then. See ya!" Agent Rotte smiled before turning around and blending in with the flowing mix of Cornerians.

"O…ok…" Tyler made a weak effort to reply. Agent Rotte came off as warm and inviting, he seemed like any normal dutiful citizen, how could he mix in with the worst of the bunch? Reverse psychology? No, that's just stupid. Whatever it was, the detective would soon figure out in the coming days.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Tyler Susi O'Donnell… never thought the day would come…" The oddly disposed police chief paced around the office, with the detective sitting silently in a nearby chair. He was pacing eagerly, and he looked quite excited with what he was about to disclose.

"For what?" Tyler asked when he saw a mixed message coming from his superior's smile.

The Chief stopped and slowly turned to the detective as if he could not believe what he was hearing. "You know you're going with that Agent." He maneuvered. "Your finishing this case one way or another, even if that means leaving Corneria."

"But what abo- ok…" The lupine corrected when he saw the change in the eagle's expression.

"Now before I send you off, I need one more favor from you." A suspicious gaze crossed both of their eyes; they knew they were now locked in a battle in which Tyler was unarmed. "It'll clear you to leave, and it will shut the media up about last night's convention mishap." The eagle then moved to his own desk, taking a deep breath and giving the detective a heavy gaze.

"Have you seen what they've been saying on the networks?"

"well… no I haven't gotten around t-"

The Chief immediately flipped the power button on his nearby remote. The enclosed television over on Tyler's left sprang to life. He expected to see some dramatic scene of coverage, but the result was far from it.

"Damn commercials…" The police chief muttered while he tried in vain to make the programming go faster.

_Three minutes later…_

"A theme park? What the hell?"

"I think it's coming back on." The detective noted.

"Right… ah, top story!"

On screen was a very dismal looking scene of the convention, now blocked off by untold amounts of guards and government officers. In the background could be heard a feminine voice saying, '_We still don't know the exact cause yet, but at this moment we can assume it was partially due to weak preparations made by gung-ho police officials; no word yet on how the clumsy security allowed this terrorist group to slip by unnoticed.'_

The Chief then turned the television off. "Now imagine the effect that would've had if it was already playing when I turned it on!"

Tyler stared at the hardwood floor in embarrassment.

"Tyler… Detective, I've known you for a total of two long years… and while I can say being your boss has been a painfully excruciating experiment, you have helped bring down crime in these areas. I think what happened last night is a perfect excuse for discharge."

Tyler almost stuttered in his speech. "I'm sorry are… are you… firing me?"

The Chief nodded no. "Think of it as… promoting you to another job."

"Alright, but what's the favor?"

"You will be my scapegoat so that I don't have to take the blame… and I'll finally get to fulfill my dream of releasing you into the wild."

The detective rolled his eyes.

"Oh and Detective… in addition, your remaining paperwork will be either removed or transferred to your partner, Mr. Mullins."

Tyler sprang to his feet and yelled, "Yes!" he almost left the office right then and there, but the seemingly gravitational pull of the Chief kept him within range. "Oh, thank you thank you… I was afraid…"

"You? Detective O'Donnell? Afraid? Ha! You make me laugh. But seriously though, you're probably the most badass guy I've ever ordered around… but it will be nice for you to take that itchy trigger finger where it needs to be."

"Thank you sir. Can I leave now?" The detective was eager to exit, he was caught up in the thought of seeing new places and experiencing new things. His mind was engulfed in fantasies about what it would be like to journey with Agent Rotte and hunting Warlord Freeman until either him or that bastard was dead. But then there was Walter; he'd be leaving his best friend behind…

No, he couldn't let emotions get in the way of what he had to do, it was important he set his mind on the goal, and Warlord Freeman was that goal. He had made a silent promise to Mr. McCloud to bring justice to his wife's murderer through the barrel of Tyler's gun.

The detective then said his goodbye before leaving the office. He had been given special permission to leave the force and join what seemed to be a highly ambitious adventure to someplace far away. A million and six thoughts raced through his head. He could imagine boarding a ship and taking the pirates down one by one just like in the movies. He would be a hero, peace would come to the Lylat and he would be it's valiant crusader of justice.

The air weaved through the breezy beach as he and Weiler celebrated with a vacation after the job well done. And after that, Tyler would receive a service medal from General Peppy himself.

He could see the explosives carefully being planted in that car the night before the incident. His mind flashed to the vision of Vixy casually turning the key before the esoteric bomb went off. Warlord Freeman was behind this, and he would pay.

Mr. Doles had caused multiple horrible and brutal deaths; it was now up to Agent Tyler to return the favor.

~X~X~X~X~X~

The last hallway itself was perhaps even colder than the outside of the Finchina base; that was because it was cooled by the hearts of the base's officers. Sergeant Tyler looked in envy and disgust as the four officer's quarters were larger themselves than all of the enlisted soldiers' rooms. Another chill flowed through Tyler as he approached the Major's room.

When he entered, he could see the Major having a conversation with Lieutenant Peruse. "Sergeant." Major Jenson acknowledged.

Sergeant Tyler saluted, it wasn't long before the officers concluded their conversation and the Major was able to return to his own work.

"Alright Sergeant, what did you observe this time?" The Major asked, not even bothering to make direct eye contact.

"Sector A looks pretty desolate, I think it would be best to establish another digging site around Sector G before we move on sir."

"Establish another site? Sergeant, we don't have the numbers to do that, and even if we did, it would neglect the attention needed for the other sites, the ones with better readings and stronger chances of yielding…" He halted before speaking of what both of them already knew what may lie beneath the snow. "It doesn't matter, we need to be careful, with haste brings danger. At what rate are we supposed to reach the projected level?"

"Sir, the calculations currently show that we should be finding significant modules in about… two months."

"Good, we're right on schedule. That is all Sergeant, do as you please, we need to prepare for lockdown, that snowstorm isn't going to wait on us."

"Sir, there was another thing I wanted to discuss…" Tyler had begun to remember the offer brought to him by the coyote. His plans were clear.

"Well? Spit it out."

"It's about… one of our soldiers… a Private has approached me and attempted to arrange a fake shortage of food in order improve the quality of our meals. His plan was to use the storm as a supposed cover-up for the missing supplies so that you'd be forced to send a new drop down here."

"You must mean Private Coleman, he's tried these kinds of things before and he's complained to me at least a dozen times last month. Although I can never seem to discipline him because he's never actually able to follow through with his plans. I know what to do; pretend that I'm oblivious to his plans and follow through with his mischievous deed. If you can help me catch him in the act, I will gladly give you a good report, does that sound good?"

"It sure does sir." Tyler gave another salute.

~X~X~X~X~X~

**Author's notes: Looks like our poor protagonist is going on a fun vacation! How exciting! **


	8. Goodbye Corneria

**Author's Notes: Some of you may be confused by the… I dunno, abrupt structure of switching back and forth between reality and memory. After this chapter, the other's will mainly be free of such confusions, maybe.**

**Either way, enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, OR ELSE!**

Goodbye Corneria

"It's no use! Switch to the next one!" Tyler yelled as he narrowly dodged a stray shell which only seconds before would've gone through his head had he been in the same spot. He was out of breath, but that didn't matter; in an apprehensive bout of fear, he sprinted for the other nearby turret. He turned to see the fearful mechanic sprinting behind him become the next victim of the assault as he was immediately riddled with an assortment of enemy weaponry.

There was no time to mourn or ruminate, he had to act. The lupine switched over to the next defensive turret, leaping over the fallen debris obstructing the way. His face became empty when it saw this too had been overcome by a major systems failure, one that would take hours to re-adjust and calibrate; for some reason, Corneria, even though it's military might was enormous, was unprepared to successfully tackle an invasion of this scale. "C'mon! Work Dammit!" He slammed the red flashing panel with his fist full of rage. "F**K!" He kicked the door the aerial cannon open.

"WALTEERRR!" He yelled for his partner to comfort him with his presence. Defense now was seemingly hopeless, the enemy had invaded with such precision and careful timing that the Cornerian Defense Force (CDF) had little time to mobilize. "Walter! Where are you?!" He passed rushing bodies and fleeing citizens, pushing them aside as another explosion landed onto one of the nearby central buildings.

Finally he caught sight of the panther amidst the extreme chaos. They ran towards each other, hoping to gain even a small bit of co-operation.

"Where were you?!" Tyler demanded, shielding himself from the intense blasts screaming into his eyes. His vision was reduced to coarse but soft fuzz, and color itself was unnatural and dull. The blurring and floating of shadows in daylight haunted his mind at every corner.

"The southern government block, CDF's taking casualties at a ratio of seven to one… it's hopeless as long as they keep coming down." No sooner did Walter say this then came a large shake moved the foundation of the ground, collectively stunning the frantic mess of Cornerians. The shock was such that the source was felt by all to be originating from a spot which had just been wreaked havoc upon by a flurry bombardment seconds before. The blurred moments manifested inside of the crowd's helpless gasp followed by a simultaneous collection of screams.

"Sh*t! The Tech Center! It's coming down!"

Tyler's eyes were shadowed by the looming sight of the massive steel building collapsing. Like all structures of its kind, the three-thousand foot tall building fell straight down towards its base, creating a massive cloud of burning ash which began rushing towards both Tyler and the rest of the cloud. He couldn't help it now, it was up to those who had properly armed themselves and had taken the necessary precautions to defend Corneria and protect its citizens; unfortunately, no one had.

The lupine began panting heavily as he and a hundred other Cornerians tried in vain to outrun the oncoming cloud. The mere sight sent a shock through his heart and adrenaline began to kick in at the fear of oncoming storm.

"Tyler!" Turning around he could see Walter yelling for him from behind. His friend had gotten caught up in a number of scrambling bodies; it was obvious that he was unable to escape.

"Walter!" An invisible force held Tyler back, he couldn't help his friend anymore and he was being consumed by the growing onslaught of darkness.

He ran, but he could not escape the nearing cloud. It was not long before it had also consumed him.

Tyler awoke to find that it was still dark, the face on his bedside clock read three-thirty, but outside as always, there was a large number of lights in the city which lit up a returning sense of reality inside of Tyler.

"Another night terror?" The lupine said as he moved slowly but surely to his feet. After a yawn, he went over to a nearby nightstand and opened the drawer. Most of the apartment had been cleared out, but this drawer still kept one of his closest possessions. It was a book, a log containing every instance he had of disturbing nightmares and intrusions. He sat down and began recording to detail the event before it faded from memory.

His writing suddenly ceased when it came time to describe what it was which had been destroying the city in his dream. It had to be something with the power to eradicate on such an immense scale, which narrowed the possibilities down quite a bit; but logic was not the deciding factor when it came to the manifestations of the subconscious.

"No, no it couldn't be…" Tyler said to himself, trying to shake the connection from his mind. "No… they're gone! It's just me! I'm free from them… I'm just worrying too much…"

The detective tried to force the memories out. He realized that such dreams could be a sign of great danger, he'd had them before, but that was years ago, when his every move was monitored and watched. They never did find a way to properly capture that which had once been inside him, instead, they figured in the end that the lupine was simply immune.

All the bad memories came back to him; all those tests, those experiments. Perhaps they were for the better, but in the end, nothing had been truly solved.

Tyler knew he couldn't be under a high amount of psychological stress or Agent Rotte would certainly scrub the mission, leaving him stranded on Corneria with no further ability to fulfill his promise of bringing justice to the murderer of Vixy McCloud. The detective couldn't help but feel deeply scared; past stresses and experiences were coming back to him now, even that event which had almost effectively destroyed his mind years ago.

He couldn't escape the memory which was about to overcome him, it was meaningless to resist. He fell deeper into the pain of worry and fear inside as the recollections opened up to him and demanded his presence. As he faded into the murky holdings of Fichina and beyond, his mind froze when it had reached the last vital connection.

~X~X~X~X~X~

A room, bright and reflective, lay before Tyler. He struggled to move in the restricting chair; and his mind felt as if it was no longer his own, but only slightly. The cascading memory of absolute horror wreaked havoc inside of his own mind.

"Tyler… Tyler."

Tyler slowly turned to see the changing appearance of the faceless doctor before him. He couldn't respond, his entire mind was engulfed in something strange and unknown.

"Tyler… Tyler."

He was slipping, losing ground in a fight against a mysterious enemy. His heart was racing and his muscles were tense, he was gripped with an unforgiving cold yet his head was wrathfully feverish. Every new sight of the strange colors and blinding lights around him brought about confusing details and unsure assertions. His eyes shut tightly to lock out the outside world.

"Tyler… Sergeant."

His eyes, now fully open, fell upon the faceless doctor.

"Everything will be all right." The doctor leaned down to touch Tyler's shoulder. "Tell me Sergeant, are you feeling better? Can you speak to me? Do you know where you are?"

Tyler could not respond, words themselves were no longer part of his threshold.

"I see… " The doctor slowly turned to his associate in an eerie pass. "Keegan, we can continue with the electroshock treatment."

Tyler screamed with his eyes, a strange feeling shot through his body, what was this? All he could do was endure this strange state of suffering. Thoughts raced through his mind; those of death, those of loss, and those of hopelessness. He felt like he was losing consciousness, but he had never been so awake in fear.

"I'm so sorry Sergeant."

~X~X~X~X~X~

"I tell you, this plan is foolproof. This… immense storm is the perfect cover-up for my plan." The proud coyote pointed to the oncoming speck of frost. "Look at that, I'm surprised the whole operation won't be buried by all that snow, I mean look at that! When that storm comes… damn this place will be frozen over. We're lucky that we get to stay inside and work the hell out of the heating system."

"Sure no one's onto us?" Tyler asked with an ironic tinge.

"Yeah, and if someone is, it increases the risk of them having a very misfortunate accident. Now help me with this box."

Sergeant Tyler lifted a crate with black lettering spelling 'B-31 RATIONS' labeled on the side. "How much longer till we go to lockdown?" He asked.

"Two hours, why?"

The Sergeant looked off into the distance. "It's just… I have a friend out there… if he doesn't come back in time, he'll have to hide away in the supplementary camp and wait for us to dig him out."

"You sure he's not lost? Would we need to send a search team to find him?" The coyote asked in a rather rare gesture.

"If he gets caught in the storm, no one's looking for him at least until the winds are long gone." Tyler answered, grunting as he placed another crate down on top of another. "It gets as low as negative fifty during these storms, which is why nobody's allowed outside until the locks are released."

The cunning coyote seemed to acknowledge Tyler's statement, even though the bitter cold nearly froze his twitching ears shut. "Why is it that only a few of you get to walk out to the primary site? We have like fifty of us at the Major's disposal, why does he only use five?"

Tyler scanned his mind for the 'Major approved response' he had been directed to give.

"I guess we just have the thickest fur…" The lupine answered in a monotonous and yet almost benign way.

It probably didn't satisfy the coyote, but judging by the responsive nod he got the hint that it was time to shut up about classified information. "So… why are you here?"

"Why am I here?" Sergeant Tyler repeated. "Because I was assigned here, just like you."

"No, it doesn't seem like that's it… I got a feeling there's a deeper reason why you got stuck here instead of on a weapons base on Zoness where you get army housing and luxury benefits."

"Private, I don't feel comfortable speaking about this."

"Why? Code 7?" The coyote had just uttered the universal term for what they called 'highly unstable information'.

"Not… really. Let's just get back to moving these crates." Tyler and the coyote continued to remove the boxes from the loading compartment amongst the freezing cold weather of Fichina. After what seemed to be at least a hundred more crates, the compartment looked neither mistakably full nor suspiciously empty.

The two finished up after making sure nobody was watching them.

Tyler sat down a while later in the communications room, waiting to see the report of his friend returning to the base so that he could finally rest with a long nap. The lupine had already taken care of the coyote's disciplinary situation as the activity at the back of the base had secretly been recorded. The storm would still cover up the food, but what the coyote presumably did not know was that the rations were designed to survive and be recovered in the case of such an incident. The wolf almost felt thankful that his food was carefully suited for the environment he was in, even if it tasted like nuts on soft dry clay.

"I'm sorry Sergeant, but he's not here yet." Tyler looked up to see an invitingly happy female enter his sight. She was a lovely looking vulpine with bright young features and a warm smile.

"Have you tried reaching him?" Sergeant O'Donnell asked.

"Yes, but every time we attempt to communicate, we seem to be bombarded with interference."

"Interference? Is it because of the storm?"

"No Sergeant, the interference is of a different sort. Our communications are not being blocked; it's as if they're being… attacked." The woman walked over to nearby screen, Tyler followed.

"Attacked… do you mean jammed?"

"It does show similar signs to a jammed signal… but our technology doesn't recognize the source of it. It's not being jammed in the sense that we can recognize it." She showed the lupine a heap of scales and readings which he had no knowledge on how to decipher himself.

"What… who could be doing that?"

"There are only a few ways… one, someone's purposefully jamming the signals outside of the base, or two, we're getting an unnaturally high amount of solar radiation interfering with the systems."

"But if it was due to solar storms then our shielding systems would be going crazy, wouldn't they?"

"I'm afraid so…"

A silence fell in the communication room. Tyler tried as hard as he could, but it was as if the answer was inside of his own mind. Every scout was taught how to diagnose a number of simple communication errors and learn how to fix it, maybe the answer was not hidden in details but instead part of the surface picture.

"You know, at the site, we deal with a lot of strange equipment… do you think it's possible he's inadvertently mucked up his own communications?"

"It's certainly possible…" The female vulpine turned to face the Sergeant. "What kind of equipment do you use over there?"

"For starters, there's a commonplace heat generator, but that doesn't pose any danger. There's also a magnetic repulsion lifter, a Pheonix exploration probe, a Sinnex Scanner, Kitav Industries recovery tools…"

"Hmm, those have been known to cause problems, but only if your friend is still near them."

"That's what I'm worried about; he should be inside or at least close to the base an hour before the storm hits. He was supposed to prep the equipment for stabilization… if anything there shouldn't be any activity."

Unfortunately, the lupine was then hit with a sinking feeling that his comrade was in danger. The thought that Taylor could be stuck out there with nothing or no one to help him gave him chills that not even the weather could produce. It was an infrequent yet strong desire he had when he knew someone was in peril and only he could help. If Taylor were to get caught in the storm, they would be lucky to even recover his body.

The greatest danger on these planets was not being killed by enemy fire or accidental explosions; instead it was most commonly the events associated with being left alone in a hostile environment which led to the most fatalities. One of the reasons that Tyler received a slight boost of hazard pay was the risk which his job brought with him. Journeying such a distance in the snow every day meant he had to be in peak physical condition, and report in at very short intervals.

If they couldn't reach Taylor, then he had to look for him.

"But Sergeant, if you go out there now, we cannot guarantee your safety or return once we enter lockdown."

"Sir, Taylor hasn't returned yet, he could be stuck out there needing help!"

"Sergeant O'Donnell, if you go out there and don't come back, I'll have a ton of paperwork to fill. And trust me; they investigate every damn accident that happens. Too many times soldiers have been eliminated by others due to internal disputes, and I don't want this to look like that. I'm afraid I'll have a heap of writing to do either way."

Tyler lashed out in frustration, slamming his fist onto the Major's desk. "Damnit Major! One of your soldiers is in danger and all you can think about is the red tape you'll have to deal with if it doesn't work out?" He paced around the room, wanting to yell, scream, anything that would let out his frustration, but his self control kept him from going too far.

"You know what Sergeant? If you want to go out there, be my guest. But it will not in any way be under my official authorization, you got that?"

Tyler turned to leave the officer's wing, not saying a word.

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Goodbye apartment…" The detective closed the door to his room for the last time. All that engulfed him as he left was a feeling of closure and relief. He had all but forgotten the inner psychological torment he had endured just this morning. "Goodbye building, goodbye street." He climbed into a vehicle which had been waiting for him outside of his building. "Goodbye discolored sidewalk." The lupine waved one last time to his place of dwelling before it was pulled out of view by the acceleration of the government vehicle.

"You excited?" Agent Rotte asked.

"I'm a lot of things right now." Tyler answered.

"Good, because it's going to a strange day." Agent Rotte smiled before continuing to watch the outside landscape pass by beyond the window. "Saying goodbye can sometimes be the hardest part, you never know if you'll ever see any of these places again."

"Yeah…" Tyler answered, watching as he saw a group of CDF volunteers organizing some large machines in a nearby field.

Agent Rotte moved closer to the lupine, he could see that Tyler was being distressed by something. "Are you ok Agent?"

Tyler felt a strange rush of pride at the first mentioning of him being an agent. He truly hadn't done much other than say yes. "Yeah… just… had some nightmares."

"About what?"

"The city… Corneria… was under attack, and we were all helpless to defend it…"

"Aparoid?"

Tyler's face became flushed, his chest was pounded in surprise. "Yeah… how did you…"

"Don't think I picked you up on the spur of the moment detective, I've been following some of your records for some time now, I know enough about you."

Tyler was frightened at the revelation. How much did Agent Rotte know? Did he know about Fichina? How did he know it was…

"I can see by your face that such information doesn't come easy to you. Don't worry, most of your records contained more blacked out lines than actual words, at least the ones which hadn't been destroyed."

"Alright… just remember that I don't intend to talk too much about personal experiences during this mission." Tyler's demand was somewhat contradictory to the nature of when they first had met.

"Speaking of the mission… I think it's about time to go over the plan for when we board the vessel later today." Agent Rotte laid out a holographic screen before Tyler, and they went over a number of co-ordination signals and plans.

A few minutes later, the vehicle had approached the police complex. It looked no different than it had been in the past, yet it almost gave off an unfortunate scent to the detective, one that he'd been accustomed to when he was in EOD training. He shook of the casual misinterpretation when he noticed the smell was actually coming from his favorite restaurant down the street.

When Tyler walked inside of the police station, he was greeted by a number of people who before had never really noticed him. He walked past the busy desks to where Walter usually was found. He took a deep breath before heading over to him.

"Walter…"

"Oh! It's you…" The panther replied in a suppressed shock. He rolled his chair away from his desk to greet the lupine.

"I just… came here to say goodbye."

"I know… Mr. Rotte's taking you now?"

"Yeah, we need to move fast if we want to get an edge on Warlord Freeman."

Tyler's long time partner looked towards the ground. "Makes sense. This is the weirdest case we've ever had isn't it?"

"No, the weirdest case we've ever had was the one where we had to chase that psychopath who was stuffing dead bodies inside of vending machines."

"Oh yeah… how did we capture him again?"

"Ulrich was able to track him to that abandoned warehouse, don't you remember?"

"No, that wasn't it… I remember it had something to do with toothpaste… lots of toothpaste."

"You're confusing it with shampoo, the shampoo vat murderer."

"No that, was recent… the warehouse incident was our… that was our first case? Wasn't it?"

Tyler scanned his memory for the recollection of his first case with Walter. He remembered when he left the military he no friends in all of Corneria except for Walter. Memories with Walter seemed to be the only good ones he had. "I think so… I can't remember."

"Well I guess it's not the strangest case, might turn out to be the longest though."

"It's the most explosive case…"

"True, and it's also the most lethal case."

"The most invisible case…"

"And the most significant case." Walter returned.

"I guess…" Tyler felt at a loss for words; all he could muster was, "Its… the most intriguing case."

Walter sat deeply into his chair. "Yeah, that sounds right."

The two stared at each other in silence. They knew this could be the last time they ever saw each other. Tears came to both of their eyes, but not overwhelmingly. Walter was one of the only non first-degree relatives whom Tyler connected with emotionally. He had been his friend longer than anyone else, and they helped each other through times of insanity.

"Well… I guess this is it."

Walter moved closer and embraced his friend in a loving hug. Emotional gestures such as these were not strange to most Cornerians, but to Tyler, it was an event he had not experienced in a long time. "I'm gonna miss you buddy." Walter said, shedding a last tear.

"Walter, before I leave, there was something I wanted you to keep." Tyler handed his partner a small book. "It contains a record of some of the strange things I've experienced; I wouldn't want anyone else to have it."

"Thanks," Walter said, setting the book aside. "believe it or not, you're a good friend."

"Well… thanks…" Tyler moved away from his partner before giving him their super secret best friend handshake.

"I'm a bit rusty…" Walter admitted.

"You're supposed to turn _after_ we make the infinity symbol."

"Sorry, I thought that was last."

The two laughed all the way to the police station entrance.

Walter backed away to look at his friend once more. "Don, it's dangerous out there."

"I know, I'll keep Agent Rotte safe, don't you worry."

"You might not be coming back."

"I take that risk every day…"

Tyler was about to turn away before Walter touched his shoulder.

"Don…"

"Yes?"

"Before you go… can you tell me?"

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me what happened… on Fichina…"

Tyler looked away and his head began to fill with fear and worry, projections and possibilities already crept into his unsure suspicions.

"When you were discharged from the army, I came to see you at Kinsey Mental Health and Wellness Center. You were… going on about Fichina and… how you couldn't return there even though you hadn't been there for years. When you were finally released, you still couldn't live on your own, and you had to move in with me for a couple of months. You never would've become a detective if you hadn't had me."

Tyler's mouth began to dry. His friend was trying his best not to stress him out too much, but some things were simply unbearable to Tyler.

"Tyler… will you tell me?"

"No, I can't tell you."

"Why?"

Tyler did not say another word.

"Don, please, as your friend, I want to know."

"I want you to know too!" The former detective yelled.

"Then why won't you tell me?"

Tyler looked away.

"Please… I might never know."

Tyler's blue eyes froze.

"Just tell me in one word."

The lupine looked up to his friend for the very last time.

"Horror… just read that book and you'll understand what did to me, but I won't tell you or anyone what happened."

"Well… ok. Tyler? Please come back… alive…"

After that, Tyler began to walk away, back into the vehicle where Agent Rotte sat. The only words exchanged between the two before they were separated was a solemn 'goodbye'.

~X~X~X~X~X~

**Author's Notes: Only after I reread this (yes, I know, shocking) did I notice that much of it is a shameless ripoff of three different movies at the same time, but I'm sure you didn't catch on to that… I know it might seem slow, but the story needs to be developed, so STOP CRYING! It's like ****reviewers**** readers are silent, SO SILENT! **

**I hope you like my story, and I hope you'll be back for more! **


	9. Escape and Evade

Author's Notes: **Before I start this chapter, let me apologize to every science fiction work I have ever read/watched/played. Something feels eerily ripped off at this point, but I don't know what. That's a good thing, right?**

Enjoy.

Escape and Evade

Tyler watched as the attacking raindrops pattered on the car window, sliding down at the merciless hands of gravity, but sometimes merging with others to form a much more resilient defense mechanism against falling. Recently, him and Agent Rotte had gone over basic concepts and procedures for the operation, including identity, orientation, and goals.

To catch Warlord Freeman, they needed to follow a plan; which involved inciting opposing factions against the aggressor in order to neutralize him. Tyler had to change everything; his clothes, his gun, even his name, today would be the first day of the operation, and he couldn't wait.

"So who are these… friends we'll be taking off with?" The former detective asked.

"Just a few smugglers who are going to lead us to our destination. They're not exactly first-class, but at the same time, there's nothing we can take that would be less suspicious. It's notoriously difficult to get where they're going without a certain amount of trust; fortunately, I've been easing into their scope for the past month, they'll be familiar of me and by extension, complacent of you." Agent Rotte said intrepidly.

"Right, and where exactly are they going to be taking us?"

"If I told you everything you might act suspicious. The less you know the less potential you have to mess things up."

That answer only confused the lupine, but in his world of intuition and planning, he knew that deep schemes sometimes were driven by less than obvious methods into their eventual molds.

"You are just one of my acquaintances, ready to get away from Corneria and join one the many warring bands in the disputed sectors." Agent Rotte spoke as if he had developed an entire lifetime for Tyler to fill. "Your EOD training and former military experience is an asset held in high regard among rogue militias and private contractors alike; furthermore, you've severed all connections from the Cornerian forces ever since you were discharged a few years ago and now you're clean."

"Sounds about right…" Tyler noted. "almost too right."

"We need to set a balance between truth and fiction. Whatever comes naturally along with your experiences and at the same time fits an artificial narrative we create is usually what we go with. If it's already built in your subconscious, it's easier to become that than trying to become someone else completely."

Tyler nodded. "Makes sense." He not only sounded but looked tired. "I just want to get this whole operation started, ever since Doles got off the planet I…" He sank into a yawn.

"You've been eager to chase him down?"

"Yeah… that. Let me make one thing clear about this Weiler, I also have my reasons for taking him down. I will follow orders and what not, but remember I'm still trying to solve a murder here."

"As long as it doesn't conflict with anything, do what you want."

Tyler looked outside of his window once more to see the distant city start to fade. He knew that he may never again see that beautiful city, however expensive it was to live there. Outside of the denser commercial area in the center was the sensibly packed residential sections where most of the middle class citizens resided. Tyler was lucky enough to live in one of the many high rise buildings which formed a web of demand amongst potential buyers looking to escape mediocrity.

The boundaries of the main city was widely accepted to be the section where the mountainous began to ascend, forming a canyon-like roadway which an endless stream of traffic took no delay in filling.

"You see that sign up there?" Agent Rotte pointed to a slightly inconspicuous roadside marker on the top of a proceeding ridge. The statue next to it looked to be of some importance, but the lupine knew not why.

"Yeah, what about it?" Tyler asked.

"That memorial marks the spot where the city officially began. That same ridge was where an ambitious pack crossed over long ago to find an unsettled land to call their home. They journeyed through bitter winter snows, torrential rain, weaved past constant war, and climbed these very mountains to reach this point. And today, their settlement is still here, modernized for all of the Lylat to see."

The small memorial passed from sight.

"Huh… never heard of that story… " A wandering thought flew inside the wolf's mind. "do you think… I might be related to the original settlers?"

"Could be…" Agent Rotte speculated. "Anything's possible."

The drive away from the main city took about an hour. At this point, they were far enough from most passive signs of civilization, and the rain had mostly passed.

"We're almost there. A couple more miles and we'll be at the spot." Agent Rotte said as he began to pull into a nearby service station.

"wh- why are we stopping now?" Tyler shifted in his seat and swerved his head around.

"Because, it would be very strange if we pulled up to the meeting site in a vehicle." Agent Rotte answered, smiling at the lupine and hoping he understood the implication. The government vehicle pulled into an open garage at the back of the station. "There will be a change of clothes and some other equipment waiting for us in the closet."

"You've sure planned this part out."

"And after that, we'll continue on our way… without the car."

"You mean?"

"Yep… we're walking."

~X~X~X~X~X~

"You know, I don't mind walking, but this is a bit of a hike." Tyler said, panting intermittently after crossing another brook and stepping over a large boulder.

"Relax O'Donnell, it's not like you're the first one. Besides, it'll lower our suspicions and make us look really desperate. This is supposed to be an unauthorized launch, we wouldn't want to leave a bread crumb behind; which is exactly why you need to act like you're worried about 'them' being on your tail."

"Alright Wyatt." Tyler replied, using the newly accepted cover name instead of the agent's real one.

"No, you're not saying it right. You should say it with more respect, with more… fervor."

"Sure thing Wyatt."

"Better… for the record, you should act real scared around me, pander to every whim, you know. That'll be convincing right? And as long as they see me as alpha, you won't have to involve yourself too much at first."

Tyler said nothing.

"Excellent, you're doing a good job already." Agent Rotte smiled with content. "Keep it up."

Another ridge of untouched land later and the two saw below them their destination. "Hold on, there it is." Agent Rotte pointed to the small spaceship grounded in the flat clearing. Next to the ship, a couple of figures could be seen loading crates and checking the exterior for anything strange.

"That? That's our ride? Are you sure it can even go airborne?" Tyler wondered.

The ship itself was quite ugly. Basically the general idea of the design was three long lumps, with the one in the center residing above the ones beside it.

"They sure think it can." Agent Rotte scanned the area. "C'mon, let's get down to meet 'em."

The ship's crew noticed the two agents walking down the hill when they got to about the halfway mark. They waved to make sure it was who they were expecting to meet them.

When they reached the bottom, Tyler nervously stood two steps behind and one to the right of his comrade, unsure how to approach the new figures.

Waiting for them was an impatient blue jay, who despite looking like he had been waiting for days; spoke in a laid back manner. "I told you to be here earlier, what was the hold up?"

Agent Rotte initiated a defensive gesture. "We couldn't draw attention to ourselves by getting here in style. That's why we had to spend the night in the backcountry."

"Yeah, I could tell from the dirt on your clothes, did you guys get something to eat?"

"There were some berries we munched on a few miles back, but we haven't eaten anything else." The canine answered.

The blue jay rolled his eyes. "There are some ration bars inside if you want them. It seems my crew won't eat anything that doesn't come out of a restaurant." The bird's last words were spoken louder so that everyone nearby could hear.

The loud sound of metal slamming into metal rang through everyone's ears. "What the hell… Wyatt, could you go lend butterfingers a hand? It seems he has trouble inserting a simple capacitator ring."

"Alright… Thanks again Alex…" With that, Agent Rotte walked off towards the nearby ship to aid the struggling ocelot.

Tyler now stood alone and silent. The blue jay gave him a strange look before awkwardly pacing around him in a circle not once, but twice, and then headed back to where he began to face him directly. "So… we haven't met." He noted, folding his feathered arms. "I'm Alex, but you can me X if you want."

"Susi… I'm Susi." The lupine acknowledged.

"Well Susi, nice name. So what brings you to Avaluuk station?"

"Is that where we're going? I mean… Wyatt didn't tell me much about our destination… I just want to get the hell off of Corneria."

Alex cackled briefly. "You've never heard of Avaluuk? Well that's understandable… I mean it's not the biggest post past the line, but it's full of everything you'd expect; mercenaries, pirates, whatever. But nobody sets foot onto the station without a purpose, that's the fastest way to wake up in a frozen bathtub missing a kidney." He neared closer to the lupine. "Do you know what it's like to have a replacement organ? It's like having to piss orange soda." He said in an eerily flow.

"O…k, I have my own reasons, I don't plan on losing anything."

"Come on, you owe me this. I'm giving you a special opportunity by flying you over there and your friend's paying for it not you; the least you could do is tell me why."

Tyler looked back at the blue jay, this time he looked really annoyed. "I just want to get away."

"Fair enough." Alex turned and began to walk away. "Be on board in twenty minutes."

Tyler looked up at the wide Cornerian sky. How huge, how deep it looked. He never had the time to see everything he wanted on this planet, never cared to go to parties, or see what the city had to offer. Tyler only longed for it now, as he was preparing to leave it all. His heart rate rose as he realized once more why he was doing this. It was Vixy, the murder; such a simple act had led to this. And now, Tyler was ready to chase the guilty party all across the Lylat. For a while, the lupine contemplated his life, from the Fichina incident to his EOD days up until his eventual settling on Corneria, it felt like a tight set of events had led him to this moment with some sort of purpose. His ears twitched at the sound of him being called inside the ship.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Tyler sat quietly in the worn seat, he tried not to listen too much to the constant arguing in the cockpit, but his efforts were in absolute vain. He had tried to find some sort of distraction, but the small ship was tightly spaced and uncomfortable to explore; the design was very reminiscent to an older ship design, when wide spaces were considered impractical. His seat was one of six in the central arrangement, they were positioned in two side by side columns the three seats positioned vertically. Naturally, he got the back.

"I told you, this girl's as stable as any ship in the Lylat!" Said Alex to one of the crew members whom the lupine had not yet officially come to know. "And just like any girl, you gotta know where to touch to get her started."

"You kidding? The guy who sold you this piece of junk said he almost gave it away as a bomb!" The frustrated figure hid away from identification under a tight pressure suit.

"Don't worry, don't worry! When we get to Avaluuk, this will all be sorted out." The blue jay calmly replied, attempting to extinguish the tense situation. "I'll find a good mechanic, and he'll do a good job on this ship, I'm sure."

"Oh you will? Isn't that what you said last time we went there? What makes it different now? Don't worry; I'm sure someone will be able to fix it when we get there, just like the other fifty rejections we've faced in the past!" Tyler could tell by the tone of the suited individual that he was ready to fight rather than take off.

"Relax, relax, now it's different, we've got the money." Alex turned only briefly towards the two agents. "Engineers can fix a lot of things with the right money."

"But they still can't fix stupid." The unknown Lylatian stumbled off towards the back of the ship, which honestly was not too far away since the ship itself was quite small. "I'll check to see if it's ready to go, in the meantime, make sure we're on time with the fake launch because if we're caught by the CAG, it'll be your fault." He said, alluding to the ever watchful eye of the Cornerian Air Guard.

"Yeah, I hear ya… asshole…" Alex shook his head before returning to the grand instrument panel.

The lupine was constantly distressed by inside arguments and confusing points thrown at him from the bickering crew members, but even then, he would only be more afraid if the ragtag team got along. It was all he would expect from a smuggler crew; he only hoped that it wouldn't cost him his life. He sank in his seat, hoping to get away from where he was now. It was just like when he in the army; so much waiting, so little action. He needed to speak up.

"Het, X, I don't mean to complain, but could this go a little faster?"

"Keep your tail stiff Susi, I've never seen anyone so excited to get to Avaluuk since the Big Five returned from capturing that lost caravan. Victor's in the back making sure we have everything ready to make the journey in one piece."

"Oh, is he getting our suits ready?"

"Suits?" Alex repeated in a bewildered fashion, and beak hung upon as if to say something vulgar and repulsive. "What do you think this is a flying hotel? Do you know how expensive those things are? One for each of us would cost as much as this whole damn ship!"

Tyler was taken aback at the possible notion of him being the assumed 'newbie'. He almost spoke up then, probably to say something stupid, but he was drowned out by the voice of his colleague.

"Forgive Susi, he hasn't flown much on these types of ships, I know it doesn't sound too comforting but he's ex-military too."

On most parts of military ships and on all of Corneria's fighters, it was expected to wear your basic activity suit in case something went wrong; although it had slowly become more common to be exposed, uniforms were still worn to avoid any breach of protocol. This was all that Tyler had experienced; in fact, even on his ride down to Fichina when he was being deployed he was required to wear a pressurized suit. However, most outside of Corneria's military had to settle for wearing the same street clothes on their ships and often anywhere else, as they were not funded by a continues stream of taxes.

Alex's expression unexpectedly changed to one filled with a more accepting disposition of Tyler. "Ah, another deserter just like me, eh? That must be why you want to get away, don't want to live hiding in the woods anymore."

Tyler nodded halfway. "Well that's… kind of somewhat mostly true." He admitted.

"Yeah, there's nothing more liberating than having to live on your own, build a temporary shelter every night, hunt for your own food…"

"Susi's excellent at tracking his prey down." Rotte interjected. His words could mean multiple things to Cornerians, including a stray implication that Tyler was an assassin.

"Well that's good. If you can prove yourself, you won't have any trouble finding a pack at Avaluuk." Alex said before returning to his control panel. "If we ever get there…" He then turned to look into the tight corridor behind him. "How's it going?"

"Just give me a minute… I need to coordinate the fake launch."

"What is he talking about when he says fake launch?"

"On our launches, we have to slip by CDF somehow. Generally that means staging a fabricated launch somewhere else so that we lift off without having to worry about them chasing us. You've gotta be clever when doing these things. Unauthorized launches can be tricky, especially if there are military aircraft in the area."

Tyler looked behind him to see the suited crew member returning to the front. "It's good, I'd say we got a three minute buffer."

"Nice, hopefully they'll bite the bait." Alex commented as the one he called Victor seated himself in the other front seat. In the middle seat behind him and in front of Tyler was a sleeping ocelot who barely noticed it was time to take off.

"Should I wake him?" Victor asked, staring at the sleeping crewman.

"Na, the engines will do the job." Alex flipped a few small switches in preparation for takeoff. The entire ship jolted and the sound of the machine roared, waking the confused ocelot immediately. "Alright everyone, time to strap in."

As they left the planet's atmosphere, Tyler stared back at it through a small window as it grew smaller. It had never looked so beautiful to him. "Goodbye, Corneria."

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Can't believe how easy we passed them back there." Alex noted, walking carefully into the small break room. "I think we're home free, once we pass the line at least."

"They didn't even try to chase us?" Victor asked.

"Nope… just turned around and flew away." Alex mimicked the motions with a twirling gesture.

"What dumb luck." Tyler commented.

"I know, it's like we were… authorized or something." Alex continued in a paranoid sounding ideation. "No matter, enjoy the rest of the ride, and uh, Wyatt." Agent Rotte's ears perked up at the sound of his alternative name. "We'll discuss payment once we get to Avaluuk, alright?" The canine nodded and Alex returned to the front of the ship to man the controls.

"Well, I think it's about time I check up on the engine on the off chance it's ready to explode." Victor's large frame struggled to squeeze through the tight doorway and further towards the back of the ship.

The two agents were now alone inside the cramped division. Tyler had so much to ask, but he knew that talking too much could also be dangerous.

Agent Rotte leaned closer to Tyler. "Everything might feel normal now, but it won't be for much longer. Don't be distressed when the unexpected happens, I've arranged for a number of things to fall into place."

Tyler's was clairvoyant enough to understand the depths of the Agent's scheme.

"Those fighters… You made sure they wouldn't chase us?"

"I presume the pilots were told it was a covert operation, inter-government conflicts are always messy; I had to get clearance from five different sources, apparently they don't sit around all day like we tend to think."

"Huh… so what do we do when we get to Avaluuk?"

"Hold up. I can't tell you everything, can I? It needs to be a surprise? Besides, you're a fugitive trying to find work at a new place, act like it."

Tyler sighed, and then turned to see the multi-dimensional display table, where Victor had recently introduced him to an assortment of wildly confusing, excessively strange, and most likely impossible games.

"You want to try that one where the cube spins and… the other thing lights up?"

Tyler didn't respond.

"You don't want to do anything?"

"No, we can't talk, not now. I think I'll be heading to the cockpit-" Just then, the entire ship started to shake. "What was… that…" the lupine stopped in his tracks.

"I think they're here." Agent Rotte answered.

"Here? You mean at Avaluuk?"

"No, we're not even halfway."

"Then what…"

They both felt another rumble.

"Wyatt? What's going on?"

The ship shook once more, and presently, the ocelot rushed into the room screaming, "Someone's attacking us!"

"Impossible!" Agent Rotte exclaimed.

"Get in here!" Alex yelled.

Everyone rushed to the front of the ship. Out of the small viewport, the collection of nervous eyes all fell upon the large frigate which lay before them. The ship was long and rough, unlike the one they were in; moreover, it was at least twice their size. Taking a ship like that head on would be nearly hopeless with their limited weaponry.

"Jammers." Alex checked to see if the system display signal was on.

"They're on."

"Diffusers?"

"Always on."

"What do they want from us? Why the hell are they on this route, I thought you said this way was clean!"

"It is clean, that's probably why they're on it!"

Tyler's heart began to race, but Agent Rotte silently told him to calm down by touching his shoulder.

"Well what are they going to do, attack?" Victor queried.

"I don't know…" Alex picked up a transmission signal which was loosely flying around in a touchpad on the left side, which was commonly used for ship to ship communications. He read the message, and then slammed the screen.

"Damn it, they're going to try and board us!"

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **Sorry for this chapter being so… na, it's too deep for you guys to understand even if I tried to explain it. **


	10. Avaluuk

Author's Notes: **I had a strange feeling about this chapter. I almost felt like it didn't fit or if I used the same word over and over again. I feel like I did something wrong, but I don't know why. It might be due to the insecurities of introducing so many new characters that you lose any sort of concrete foundation, but hopefully that's not the case and you still enjoy it. **

**I don't want to keep you with my ramblings though, let's begin.**

~  
Avaluuk  
~

"Board us?" Tyler repeated in a voice blanketed with insecurity. "How can they do that? You can barely fit five in here before it becomes too crowded." The wolf glanced once more at the back airlock, which was about the same size as a common Cornerian elevator.

"It's simple really, but I don't know why they'd make themselves so vulnerable." Alex commented. "99% of the time, boarding requires both of us to co-operate, they obviously don't want to waste us so I guess there might be a mix-up or something."

"What are we going to do? Try and escape?" The ocelot questioned. "Maybe we can make a break for it and try to reach someone else's territory for protection."

The protection that the small cat spoke of was merely an agreement that different station owners accepted, that usually summed up to 'I leave you alone, you leave everyone in my land alone' idea which had been around long before any of them existed. For instance, it was considered wrong even among the worst of pirates and thieves to take a ship out while it was near the station, unless of course that target had hostile intentions. But at the relatively long distance they were from Avaluuk, they were lucky the frigate hadn't already blown them to pieces.

Alex shook his long head. "Na, if we try to run we're dead for sure… I don't think we can do anything but allow them to board us." He slammed the control panel in frustration.

After he had done this, the ship began to vibrate a slight bit, and the lights flickered along with the strange sense of movement. The now frightened blue jay turned to his passengers. "Listen, we're going to let them come in. I don't want any trouble, and I don't want any fighting. Hopefully they're looking to see if we have any valuable resources, but they'll leave once they figure out it's just a routine transportation job." The bird cut the power to a mere five percent.

The nearby frigate silently rotated in a position adjacent to the lesser ship.

"I can't just stand around here while you let these guys waltz right into our ship!" Victor yelled, his harsh voice ringing in everyone's ears.

"There's nothing else we can do!" Alex returned. "And besides, the ship belongs to me."

"Oh yes there is!" Victor switched the main control system over to his seat and began to move the ship. With the right engaging procedure, a co-pilot had just as much control over the ship as the main pilot, however, the main pilot needed to switch the controls over in order for it to work.

"No you don't! I'm in control of this ship! Not you!" The small bird was no match for the larger copilot, but he still managed to force him out of his seat and up against the wall. "And I say we stand down!"

Alex pushed, Victor shoved. The two fought in a battle of both planning and upper body strength. One was always gaining or had a slight advantage over the other but never reaching an end.

Amidst the fighting and tension, Tyler stood by, not knowing what to do and completely unwilling to interlope. Agent Rotte however, made his move; he grabbed Victor from behind so that he couldn't move without the agent's agreement. He then spun around, and used the force of his movement to throw the suited individual onto the hard metal floor, knocking him into submission. "Alright alright, I give." He said, knowing full well that the canine could've used more force to catapult him down if he had desired.

Dazed, Alex thanked 'Wyatt' for intervening before he returned the main piloting seat. "Alright then, we'll allow them to board. Nobody do anything stupid ok?" The whole crew nodded in resolved acceptance.

Agent Rotte leaned close to Tyler and whispered in his ear. "They're about to board, stay calm and just let things move along naturally. And when you see things turn out unexpectedly, just go with it." The confused lupine had little time to fully understand Weiler's cryptic message.

In about a minute's time, the two ships were locked together, there was no way out now, it was far too late. The ship members all stood side by side, as a common sign that they meant no harm. Their knees wobbled, their tails vibrated, and Tyler could hear his heart pounding in his head.

"Now listen, that door will open very soon." Alex said, softly gesturing towards the airlock of doom. "Don't speak unless spoken to, don't make eye contact, don't sneeze, don't smirk, don't cough, don't laugh, don't blink-you know what, don't do anything that might draw a speck of attention to yourself."

"But what if my eyes start to hurt?" The shaking ocelot asked raising one of his paws up.

"Ok ok, you can blink, but count to six before doing it again."

And so, Tyler and the others stood still in front of the airlock, waiting for it to open and have who knows what walk through. This whole thing was botched, it had to be. What if this encounter turned out to be the anti-climactic end to the whole operation? What if behind those doors was a band of brigands ready to storm them once it flung open? There were many things going on in his mind then, but none of them were in any way positive. He jolted as he saw one of the lights above the door come on, meaning that someone was now in the chamber set between the ships. He held his breath as his eyes froze. He watched the door slide open in a clean, smooth motion.

Out from the newly opened chamber walked three Lylatians two of them armed. They headed not towards Alex, who had stepped up to meet them in greeting, but towards Agent Rotte, who was waiting for them with arms folded.

"Well well Wyatt, you weren't kidding when you said you'd get me a ship." Said the nearing raccoon, half smiling at the comforted canine. "I only expected it to look like… a ship instead of a garbage compactor."

"Wya…. You're in on this? You bastard! How could you!" Alex attempted a violent swing at the agent, but was countered by the two soldiers who had followed the new arrival. "I'll get you back for this, don't doubt me! I don't know how, but one day I will get you back! Even if I have to hunt you down through the smelliest bogs in all of the Lylat I will find you and when I do I'll steal your shi-" The airlock door closed, sealing his presence away from the others. The door slid open again, and another group of soldiers came inside to take the rest away.

"Now take those two." Agent Rotte demanded to the soldiers as he pointed at the remaining crew members. They went over to the other side of the airlock without struggling like their captain, but they still growled and snarled at the agents for betraying them.

Tyler couldn't believe it, and that was exactly what Agent Rotte wanted. How nice that he had set it all up so that Tyler could play along. Although it would've been nice to know this beforehand so that he didn't have to switch gears while driving.

"You can stay here a moment and get acquainted with my friend here, Mason, he's a nice guy. I'll be waiting inside the main ship."

"Sure thing Wyatt." The half-raccoon said before turning to face Tyler. "Let's see then… you must be…"

The lupine was very confused about what just happened, and with good reason. It was not because he couldn't piece it together, but because he was far too unsure at this moment about anything or anyone. He was sure that Alex was supposed to take them to Avaluuk, but in his planning, Agent Rotte had arranged for a different method to be pursued. But he still had to play along with the scheme, no matter how convoluted it became. With a sudden switch over like this, he needed time to think, but time refused to be on their side.

"Susi… just call me Susi."

"Alright Susi, you got any skills?"

"What kind of skills?"

"You know skills. Are you a good fighter? Pilot? Janitor? C'mon what's your specialty?"

"Well, I'm good with explosives." More appropriately, Tyler had experience with disarming explosives.

"Explosives…" The half-breed raccoon almost hit the ceiling when he jumped up. "Hell yeah! I like the sound o' that! Wyatt sure knows how to pick 'em!" Mason gave Tyler a hard pat on the shoulder.

Tyler's ears fell at the loud sound of Mason's explosive voice. "He does…"

"Y'ever been to Avaluuk Susi?"

"No, I have no idea what it's even like there."

"Don't worry 'bout it. As long as you stick close to me, you'll be fine and no one will wanna mess with you. I'm Mason by the way; partial proprietor of Avaluuk Station, that just means that there are a few others who think it's theirs and won't stop until their FAT, GODDAMN PAWS CONTROL EVERY DAMN INCH OF IT!" Tyler was nearly pushed back by the strong force of the yelling.

"I can see you're really angry at someone."

"Angry? No… no I I… I sometimes go off on 'em like that. We don't fight anymore if that's what you thinking. We're kinda like buds now ya know? Except we still get under each other's fur from time to time, but we're just havin' fun."

Tyler simply nodded, he was afraid to say anything else.

"Alright, enough speaking about Avaluuk, I'm sure you're dying to see it. If you don't mind, Susi, I'll let you step over here to see what my glorious ship has to offer."

Leaving the cold, bland, transportation vessel, the two entered a much larger and more open ship, which seemed to be running on more than a skeleton crew. The walls were mostly colored a dark brown, and they looked somewhat worn, the imperfectly spaced lights above echoed energy throughout the curved shape of the frigate, almost warming the lupine on the inside whenever he stepped by one of them. Judging by the internal state and design, it was most likely around ten years old.

"Funny story this ship. It was stolen during a training exercise. They counted on it to test the limits of their radar ranges; they also counted on it to come back once it left that range." Mason said with a snicker. As Tyler followed, he looked towards the side to see a mostly defaced Cornerian logo, but it was an older one which had not been adopted for quite some time. "It's got two main cannons so powerful we need a generator for each one. We also have enough supplies to last near four months if needed, but of course that's more of a precaution than anything; we don't usually take her too far from Avaluuk, but we sometimes make exceptions."

Mason led Tyler to a small door which had the word 'brig' carelessly painted over it. "This is where we keep our prisoners, at least until we find something to do with them." He pointed at the door.

Muffled insults and curses could be heard from behind the dark gate. "We'll find a good place for them to work, we treat our prisoners well."

"Let's move on." Mason urged with a lurching quick pace.

"Ah, yes, the war room." They both approached a large, circular, open space. "We're not at war with anyone, so we don't use it that much." Mason glided his paws across the disabled metal display table. "I think your friend might be waiting for us."

Before long, they met up with Agent Rotte at the grand window, which was actually a display screen made to look like a window, but at least it was a beautiful view of… well space. "So Wyatt, I think I owe you a little something now, considering you landed me both a ship and a specialist."

"Right you are Mason. We'll talk a little more about it once we're at a secure location."

"Why not now? If you can't tell me while I'm on my own ship where can you tell me?"

"That's not what I meant. I mean that such a discussion requires a few drinks, and preferably for us to be alone."

For a second, Mason's looked in a way very anxious. "Well, I guess I owe it to you…" He then laughed, completely reversing the mood. "Heh, that sounded really dirty…"

"How much longer is this going to take?" Tyler demanded like a pup being driven to a theme park.

"It'll be a while Susi, sorry, but we can't just head straight towards Avaluuk, after all, you never know what you could run into with a route like that."

~X~X~X~X~X~

Tyler stood in awe as he watched the long tunnel extend from the station and onto the side of the frigate. It was a grand sight to see the circular tube from the massive station connect with a similarly great ship. Avaluuk was even larger than he had foreseen, with a main cylindrical structure about three hundred meters lengthwise, as well as two massive triangular fins spreading outwards from the center. It was painted a dark yellow, and its exterior was poorly worn.

"Looks beautiful, doesn't it?" Mason asked, standing beside the window next to Tyler.

"Yeah its huge… how did you build it?"

"Build it? No no, it was an abandoned research outpost that was hit hard by a solar flare. After they figured out that an empty station was bound to be fought over, they just left it; no military intervention, nothing. So, a few small factions started to fight for control, and when only a few were left, they decided to share it instead of destroy each other."

The ship jerked back, and the frame creaked.

"Well Susi, I think it's time." Mason motioned for Tyler to follow him. They arrived at a the same airlock where they boarded Alex's ship, where Agent Rotte and a few others stood in waiting.

"We're locked."

"Gotcha." Mason pressed a button and the door flew open. They stepped into another room, and Tyler felt his feet stuck to the floor for a second. Behind them, the airlock door closed, and in front of them, another opened. It was a long, white tunnel, similar to what you'd see on a commercial airline. Tyler followed as everyone began to walk the length of the long tunnel.

"Now since this is your first time here, I think it's best to warn you. The artificial gravity's slightly higher that what you're used to on Corneria, so if your legs start to hurt at least you'll know why. And if you find it hard to tell when you're tired it's because we produce a lot of blue light."

The group neared the final stretch. "DAMNIT!" Mason yelled, looking out of the side window. He could see a ship only slightly smaller than his docked in the other main bay.

"What?"

"It's that WORTHLESS ASSHOLE WARLORD GREY! He thinks he can come in here like he owns the damn place! And I don't mean his division I'm talking 'bout the whole thing." Mason increased his walking speed. "When I see him I'm gonna… I'm gonna… talk to him or something." He calmed himself down.  
When they arrived at the front door, Mason ran off as soon as he could down the entryway stairwell.

When Tyler stepped down from the tunnel and onto the actual station, he was amazed at the incredible sight of it all. It was huge, and there were things everywhere. Near him over to the right was where smaller ships were kept; he saw the ship that used to belong to Alex hover towards an open spot. To the left was a large collection of things. There was a restaurant, personal rooms, a training court, and a whole assortment of other places. Currently, Tyler stood at the lowest level at the center of the station, his eyes starry as he tried to grasp the full immensity of the structure; it was like an indoor city.

Avaluuk looked much larger from the inside, mainly because much of it had been hollowed out and moved somewhere else. But even with the seemingly superficial change in the mass distribution, it only made everything visible at once.

"Mason, where are you headed?" Asked Agent Rotte.

"I need to find Lord Grey, Wyatt, he should be- DAMN it!"

Up on a platform above them entered five Lylatians who all looked to be full of themselves. "Mason, I didn't expect you to be back today." Said the foremost member in a biting sneer.

"Grey! When I get a hold of you, I'll let you watch as I turn your mangled intestines into my very own art project!"

"NOT BEFORE I TIE YOU UP AND POUR HOT ACID DOWN YOUR THROAT UNTIL YOUR STOMACH IS FRIED AND YOUR EYEBALLS HAVE BEEN REDUCED TO DUST SO THAT I CAN USE YOUR GUTS AS MY OWN BLOOD DRENCHED SHAMPOO!"

"Nice try, but YOU DON'T USE SHAMPOO!" Mason violently returned.

"Oh yeah? How would you know?"

"Your sister told me!"

Warlord Grey jumped down from the ledge and onto the same floor. Tyler could tell something was going to happen between them now and he didn't want to be in the middle of it.

"AAAHHHH!" Mason charged him.

"BLUGHGHAAAAA" Grey charged Mason.

Instead of clawing each other when they met, instead they grabbed each other in what looked like to Tyler's surprise to be a friendly hug.

"Ah, how you been doin' bud?"

"Not too bad, not too bad. Just returned from picking some valuables up." Mason pointed to Alex's old ship and then to Tyler.

"That's nice." Grey began to approach Tyler to examine him, but Mason swatted him away. "He's with me, you mess with him, you mess with Me."

"Alright, geez you're overprotective. What does he do?"

"ENOUGH Grey."

"Fine, fine. You're just as feisty now as when we were fighting for this facility."

"Where's Overcharge at?"

"Back at his room, probably trying to come up with a new name."

The two fell into laughter as if they were brothers. They spoke to each other for a couple more minutes while Tyler went on a limited exploration run with his eyes.

"Hey Susi."

"Yeah?"

"Grey and I are gonna head over to the bar and catch up, do you wanna join us?"

"Actually, I'd like to get myself acquainted with my surroundings first, if you don't mind."

Mason looked disappointed. "Alright then, feel free to join us at any time. Hey, just so you know, I have a room reserved for you and Wyatt, so if you feel like taking a nice little nap..."

"Thanks Mason." Tyler waited until he turned his back. "You're a real pal."

~X~X~X~X~X~

Agent Rotte stepped out into the hallway. Tyler was leaning on the opposite wall, waiting for him.

"So, what did he say?" The lupine asked, curious as to what the answer would be.

"He said he'll fight Freeman as long as we can get the others to help too."

"Good, we'll need more firepower if we want to take him down." The two began to pace past each other, exchanging verbal sentiments.

"He says that Warlord Freeman poses a danger to Avaluuk, which is why he's willing to aid us. If we can get all of Avaluuk to join together, we'll have a better chance of eliminating him."

"Warlord Freeman seems to be dealing in real high end stuff; we're talking about stealing advanced technology. But if that's true, why would he be interested in McCloud?"

"He probably sees McCloud as a threat; I wouldn't be surprised if he's willing to take out any private contractor that falls within his radar. He probably wanted to take McCloud down before he got hired to do the same job we're doing. That's why he understood what you were looking for."

"Which means that if we are able to pose a significant enough threat to him then that'll save the trouble of having to search for him?"

"Sounds right."

"Wyatt, do you think he knows we're looking for him?"

"No, we haven't any impact yet. But once we start to move Avaluuk, he'll see us coming long before we see him."

"Where the hell do we start?"

"Come on, I thought you were supposed to be a detective."

Tyler's ears drooped as he looked down at the floor in shame.

"Ask around, pretend to make some friends. There's a stray chance that some of them know something about where Freeman is. So what if we don't get to do everything? Once our objectives have been fulfilled, we no longer need to hang around."

"I just want to get the job done and take Freeman down."

"And to do that, you'll need the entire station to unite first. Which means that's part one in our plan. Once everyone's ready, then we'll lead the warband to take Freeman down."

"So, who do we have to navigate around?" Tyler asked.

"We need to gain the support of the station's rivals one by one, which won't be easy by any stretch since they seem to be friends and mortal enemies at the same time. If you can impress them, I'm sure they'll join us, but that's easier said than done."

"Yeah… and unfortunately for us, it's hard to say."

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **Hey guys, I just wanted to tell you how lucky you are for finding this story and that you should totally be at my feet worshiping my every grand gesture of storytelling, but I'm too humble to request something like that. Instead, I would like to imagine you all to be a privileged few, whom by an erudite choice has made it their weighty responsibility to cultivate their minds in due favor of a mor- ok I can't do this anymore. Also, in no way did I mean for this Grey to have any relation to Bill Grey, who is a real Star Fox character.**

**So, blue lamp, you guys are awesome, whatever bye…**


	11. Diffusion

Diffusion  
~

As another long shadow eclipsed over Tyler's waiting figure, a cold shock blew through the hearts of all patrons both meek and fearless. It was then that each individual had within himself responded to a deep and respectful fear, for it was then that they saw Grey himself standing before them like a rocky mountain looming over a green Cornerian forest, only with a couple other mountains standing beside him. Grey made no delay in collecting a brief scan of all whom surrounded him, Tyler included. It was not long before he walked over to the open central dispensary, which housed a large circular counter filled with an assortment of strangely colored liquids, most probably not even legal.

The bar itself was more of a meeting place than anything else. Practically everyone hung around here to discuss events in the poorly lit room, and of course half of them would probably forget those conversations once they passed out on the floor. Here at the loudest place in Avaluuk stood the quiet, agent, waiting to make his eventual move.

It was the lupine's current objective to slowly admit himself into the warlord's business and ease into his influence in order to persuade him into aiding in the fight against Warlord Freeman. But before he approached the highly regarded general, he was instead invited by him to take a seat on a table with him.

"Hey… uh, Susi, right?" Grey said as he singled out the agent with a reassuring point.

Tyler's subtle movements acknowledged the name; he brought his muzzle down slightly and closed his eyes for a little more than a second.

"We don't… he's not here is he?" Grey started to swivel around in search for his competitor.

"You mean Mason?" Tyler asked, being directed to a certain seat by one of Grey's guards.

"Yeah, him… do you know where he is?"

"Probably back at his ship." Tyler commented.

"Oh, well I guess I have some time to talk with his new explosives specialist. Shame he hasn't put you to work yet." Grey joked. Tyler could feel the eerie sense of how much the mastiff already knew. "By the way, what was your friend doing all that time?"

"Wya- my friend had a little talk with him earlier."

"Ooh, I like vaguely mentioned conversations." Grey murmured. "Would you care to tell me what about? If it's… not too intrusive."

Tyler took a cautious breath before continuing. He would have to be clever and agile with his leverage, making sure he succeeded in being one of 'them.' "He… my friend spoke to him about another warlord, one who plans on… well, one who's done some horrible things and needs to be punished. The reason we came to Avaluuk is because we need support in our great effort, to eliminate a… a great danger, a danger we can't face on our own, and have failed to defeat in the past."

Grey casually nodded. "Well, I can see you're definitely going somewhere, but I fail to recognize where. Obviously, since you haven't named the mysterious assailant yet I can only assume you are either trying to manipulate me, or suspend me for some stupid reason. I don't have the patience for either of those Susi; tell me who you're talking about or go back to Mason and explain your miserable failure."

Tyler swallowed before uttering any further words. "I… he's Warlord Freeman."

In a single moment, the most influential Lylatian in the room was shaken to his core by the mere mentioning of that name. After a few seconds of examining himself and possible situations, Grey then stood up and yelled, "Alright, the fun's over, everybody out, now!"

Immediately, about twenty independently employed guests walked out of the bar, as well as a couple of recruits from Mason's side; none of them wished to be sucked into the black hole sure to follow. A multitude of defiant onlookers still lingered however; most of them were either confused or unafraid.

"If you're still here, you're either really brave or really stupid!" Grey's booming voice exclaimed.

Reluctantly, the rest of the crowd poured outside of the lounge, all of them knew that when one of the alpha's demanded something, it was best to just accept it and move along, nobody wanted to get caught in a confrontation with any of the leaders, because that also meant you were committing a hostility towards their pack as well. The same generally went for members, but by then it tended to be much more subjective as you moved down the scale.

And then, everything was quiet, something that had probably not been achieved in that watering hole for ages.

The bartender, one of the few people who actually had the right to walk up to the warlord's face did just that.

"What the hell is this all about?" The angry lizard spat out.

Grey rested his outstretched paw between him and the server. "Calm down, I need this to go right."

The bartender slowly but surely backed away.

"Now then, how about a little drink for our friend?"

Tyler knew some of that stuff on the shelf was probably powerful enough to make him check his ears for spiders, but it would also portray him to be someone accepting of Grey's hospitality, so how could he refuse?

Instead of allowing Tyler to choose for himself, Grey decided it would be best if he decided. "Give him something good, something from the dark side of Zoness." A devious smile found its way onto Grey's muzzle, which was balanced by the nervous, shifting look from the bartender.

"Alright I'll… try to find something." The bartender retreated to his nearby circular haven, frantically mixing this and that into some strange concoction. He then approached Tyler and Grey at the table and placed a drink down for each.

"So Susi, I think it's about time we discussed a little more about Mr. Doles." Grey confidently took a quick sip.

"Do you prefer to call him that?"Tyler queried.

"I prefer to call him by the name I used to call him…" By the looks of it, Grey was preparing for something quite hard for him. "I used to be one of Freeman's top commanders when he… started out." Tyler's ears perked. "Damn he was a genius… he knew how to get out of almost any situation, and how to get others to do the same." Grey took another long pause before continuing. "He had bigger plans than to control small mining facilities though; he wanted to cause something big to happen to Corneria itself. I didn't really like that idea too much so he kicked me out. He could've killed me if he wanted, but I think he respected me enough to let me live."

Tyler was excited. He had found the first step to tracking down Freeman, one of his old comrades, what luck!

"You used to work with him then, so you know how he operates."

"Of course I do, I was sometimes the operator." Grey took another sip from his green liquid. "We'd go on these missions not knowing whether we'd come out alive, but somehow, we pulled through now matter what obstacle fell in our way." He then stared into the distance, as if he was looking into something deeper than space itself, memories. "All the time, he'd come up to me and say 'I've got it, I've got it', I never really figured out what me meant, it was probably part of his insanity."

"Insanity?"

"Yeah, the guys a genius, but sometimes he can't even tell what's real and what's not."

Tyler stared down at the bright blue drink in front of him.

"You haven't even tried it yet, are you afraid?"

"No it's just." Tyler gurgled down a good bit of brightly colored liquid. It tasted kind of sweet and felt somewhat sparkly, it didn't carry the weight as if it were top shelf or anything, but Tyler could feel its prestige washing down his throat. "Nothing…"

"Anyways, Doles kicked me off because he thought I was going to overthrow him. He dropped off in an isolated station far off on the edge of the Lylat, there I managed to form my own group and eventually we came to Avaluuk when we heard they were abandoning it." He spread his arms in both directions. "And here we are."

"That's very interesting, Grey." Tyler admitted. "Is there anyone else on the station that used to work for him?"

Warlord Grey laughed, chocking up a little inside. "There may be, but few will admit it. If you worked for him but no longer are that probably means you were either a failed execution attempt or somehow managed to run away when he wasn't looking."

"So, what do you think?"

"About what?"

"About joining our coalition to fight Freeman." Tyler answered.

"It hardly sounds official, and I'll have to discuss it with Mason before I come to a decision…" Grey then snapped his forefinger and his thumb as he remembered. "Oh and there's one more little factoid I think you should know about at this moment. You may start to feel a little slow, you might even think things are progressively becoming quieter."

Tyler felt a small stir within his mind. It couldn't be that drink could it? It was too soon. His muscles loosened, they felt weak, almost non-existent. He began to look him franticly, and the lights slowly dimmed into small blurry particles drawing long lines in opposite directions.

"What did you… put in that?" Tyler nearly fell to the station's hard floor, but caught himself on the table. It was now a struggle to stay awake; if he was able to induce consciousness by some means he would no doubt have done it. Everything started to slow, just as Grey said it would. Tyler saw the warlord standing over him; his voice was now softer, muffled, and quieter.

"It's a specialty brew, a Zoness Dark I believe." He looked back at the bartender who immediately nodded in response. "If you feel tired, that's normal."

"What yu…" Tyler failed to put a sentence together. Everything looked and felt strange.

"Don't worry, Susi, just lie down and fall asleep." Grey neared him, slowly allowing Tyler's head to come in contact with the floor.

The lupine slowly loosened his struggle to stay awake. Up until know, Grey had been quite open, but now his intentions were closed off. Tyler figured it would be best to stop hurting himself and allow the sleep inducing sedative to take effect.

His eyes fluttered a little, and then the intervals grew shorter and shorter, before they finally relaxed and gave in to a heavy sleep.

_That bastard_.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Tyler's eyes burst back into the world of the conscious. His whole body felt cold and empty, he struggled to find his bearings in the complete dark he found himself to now be in.

'_What happened? One minute I was… where was I, how did I get here? Why is it so dark?'_

In a groan, he stepped upwards from his lying down position, still unable to see anything around him. It was black, pitch black, there was no light to be seen anywhere. Was he dreaming?

"Hello? Anyone there?" He called into the void, but nothing returned.

'_Something happened… with Grey. He offered me a drink and then…' _Tyler's eyes grew wide in fear. "My kidney!" It was then that it hit him; maybe Alex was right to warn him, maybe the lupine had just followed the same fate as the poor bird. He clenched his abdomen, relieved to find that nothing had changed. '_phew…'_

Ok, so nothing was missing from Tyler, except for…

"My gun!" He noticed, unable to find his weapon on him.

Immediately, he set to work, trying to find a way out of his little mess. He began by examining his surroundings.

"Oof!" He said when he came in contact with a smooth wall. Just as he was about to gather the rest of the dimensions, a bright light turned on in the center of the room, blinding him for a brief period before he could adjust. Now he could see where he was being held; it was a large, steel gray enclosure about six meters in all horizontal directions, and above him was a small walkway situated about twice as high as the lupine could hope to jump. There seemed to be no way out except for the door, but that was way up on the grated ledge.

Just then, Tyler heard a low bellow in the metal frame surrounding him; even though he could barely see anything in the dark room, one thing that seemed to be very different was a small boxed device stuck between two jutting protrusions which ran the length of the room.

"Grey? Mason? Wyatt?" The lupine paced around the room further. "Alex?"

Just then, a loud sound erupted within the closed off room, the sound of a voice. "Have a nice sleep Susi?" Tyler looked around before realizing the voice belonged to Grey, probably speaking on the other side of some one way mirror.

"I would've preferred a soft bed instead of the floor." Tyler answered. "Where am I? What the hell are you doing?"

"First, let me apologize, Susi. I realize it must feel awfully strange to be in your position, and it might even be a little scary. Just relax and listen to what I have to say."

Tyler's instinctual reaction was to reject a diplomatic approach, but he realized he might never have the chance to hold such power of Grey's judgment again. "Alright… go on."

"Before I join your cute little coalition, I need to see if my allies are as competent as they hold themselves. After all, I don't want to rush into things not knowing whether the guy behind me can handle himself under pressure."

Tyler looked around the room once more, trying to find the source of the sound. "Fair enough. But why kidnap me and take me here? Where am I? How long was I out?"

"You're at Avaluuk's experimental liquid manipulation chamber… well it used to be that before they ditched it, now it's just an extra storage room. You've been out for about two hours if I'm correct, and frankly… "Grey's words sort of froze, as if he was unable to make it out like his intentions were beneficial. "It sounds really bad when I say it, but you wouldn't have come here otherwise."

The small device at the end of the room began to beep, accompanied by a flashing red dot.

"Oh and there's one more thing I'd like to mention…" Grey continued. Judging by his recent 'by the way' addition at the bar, whatever came next couldn't be good. "That over there is an explosive device which I'm sure you know how to disarm." He said in a now disturbing tone. "After all you are an explosives specialist, correct? Perfect, then you'll have no problem eliminating this threat. If it does go off, it won't kill you, but it will symbolize the unity we have together against my old comrade." Grey began to back off from the speaker. "Good luck."

Tyler's heart pounded at the heavy sight of the nearby bomb. He had disarmed many like this one before, but it was different in that he worked with a team, a team armed with an assortment of advanced tools and gadgets, and now he had nothing but his wit and what little he could work with. But he and everyone else in Explosive Ordinance Disposal learned the important technique of disarming with minimal equipment; if he would ever need that training, it was now. He had to get it right the first time, no second chances.

He had never actually disarmed a live bomb by hand though; it had always been through the assistance of robots and advanced tools. But now, he had no choice for safety, in truth, he could minimize the explosive's effectiveness by placing it in a more optimal position and taking cover, but that wasn't an option since he had to disarm it, nothing else.

"Damn it…" He said to himself before getting on his knees and removing the thin metal cover on the box. Lifting it exposed a flat plateau of computer boards and other things Tyler absolutely no about what they did. Slowly but surely lifting the next panel opened another level of intricate parts. But he could rely on his senses, and by the strange scent of the bomb, he could tell how it worked.

Most explosives had their entire detonation structure composed internally, but if they were made poorly and with cheap materials, chances were the fool who made it would fall victim to Corneria's EOD teams sooner or later. This one had external features, meaning that if he tried, he could smell where the explosive was stored even if he couldn't see it.

'_Alright O'Donnell, calm down. First I need to… know what goes where.'_

He shifted the wires to the side, not wanting to rush into anything before he knew who made the device. The manufacturing code should have been on the right side, next to where the actual chemicals involved in the explosive were.

'_Scratched out… someone wanted to pretend it was theirs.' _

Next, Tyler turned to find any sign of the bomb's condition, how much time it had left, where this was connected and why. Whoever made this bomb had cobbled it together from other spare parts, it wasn't the same as it was fresh from the factory, and instead it had been manipulated in order to fit the shape of its new container. If it was a direct model, disarming it without tools would've been impossible, but with this change in its structure, at least Tyler had a chance. He noticed that the explosives were separated by the trigger through a small enclosure sitting between them; when the time came to go off, the filter between them would fill with sparks as well as other chemicals, causing a dangerous reaction as they mixed together which would ignite the whole thing.

'_Alright now, separate, integrate, and ameliorate.'_

Tyler grabbed the metal panel which he had previously set aside; he then wedged it between the ignition and the bomb itself. Once this was done, he had to somehow disarm the trigger before he continued to one of the wires. Of course, normal procedure would require him to insulate it with a fitting before moving on. Now that they were separated, he had to remove the ignition, but since he couldn't do that, he had to do it the hard way.

At this point, the smartest thing to do would be to freeze the main charge and then remove it, but if he was willing to test it out, a liquid would cause a similar effect on the micro-fission detonator.

'_Where am I going to get a liquid- no no…' _Tyler shook his head as he tried to keep his curious sight away from his pants. '_That would be… no that's too dangerous.'_

Tyler neared the ignition with his muzzle, hovering mere inches above it. He spat into it until it was comfortably surrounded with liquid. Grabbing the panel next to it, he tightened its connection to the charge, now; he was ready to disengage it. His eyes closed but returned the open position upon realizing he needed to carefully remove the main charge. He pushed the metal panel against the block of ammunition, and using the leverage, moved it up and away from the ignition. He would be able to slowly continue the operation, but his paws weren't stable enough to allow it.

'_I've got to stop shaking… I can't continue with them moving like this…'_

The device of course was designed to recognize this effort and immediately go off once it realized that the charge was being removed. However, when the sparks flooded the lower section of the box, Tyler's… discharge was able to keep it from reaching the part where his hand had just jammed the other part of the device. The lupine jerked when he saw a flash on the ignition but was relieved when he found out that his plan had worked. Propping up the explosive charge on the top of the box and against the panel, he continued to disarm the rest.

It was through sloppy connections and basic principles of bomb making that allowed Tyler to do this. The rest was easy; all he had to was cover the main ignition with one of his fingerless gloves before quickly cutting some of the wires out with one of his claws. Once the wires were removed, Tyler proceeded to take apart the rest of the device, placing their functions on opposite ends of the room.

Once everything was separated, Tyler let out a great cheer. "Whooo! Take that!" He pointed with an acute ferocity to the dismantled bomb. "You think you can take me down huh? Think again!"

His ears stood up as he heard a quick cracking noise above him on the walkway. "Good job, congratulations, slow clap…" Grey said as he approached Tyler on a newly formed collection of stairs flowing under him. "I've been meaning to find something to do with that bomb for a long time now… I guess it's not that effective now." He said, looking over to the individual parts strewn across the room.

"Thanks for making me feel like I was gonna die." Tyler commented.

"You're welcome. It proves to me that you're competent enough to know what you're doing, Susi, I'd be glad to aid someone as skilled as you in taking down the one who left me." Grey extended a paw outwards towards Susi, as a gesture of mutual agreement. Not wanting to refuse, Tyler took what he could get.

"You know, Mason's going to be really mad when he figures out about this."

"Yeah, but he won't be because he won't figure out, right?"

"About what?"

"Exactly." Grey murmured with a tinge of humor. Everything seemed to be flowing along nicely until the two were interrupted by a newcomer.

"Grey?" Both Tyler and the mastiff looked up to see a small vixen standing in doorway, an unexpected sight to say the least. "What are you doing here? And who's this?" She asked, pointing to Tyler. "I thought you said you wouldn't have any more secret discussions."

Grey looked as if he was weakened right there. "Uh… this is, Susi…" He turned to Tyler as the woman descended the stairs. "He's… uh… he's an explosives technician."

"Explosive technician?" The vixen repeated in surprise. "Grey, why would you need one of those?"

"I- I don't honey… Mason does."

'_He he… honey…'_

"Why would Mason need-" The woman stopped as her eyes fell on Tyler. "nevermind." The vixen turned and began to walk away through a newly opened door. "Please don't tell me you'll be up all night talking to Mason's… associates, you won't have time for Me."

"We're in space, it's always night and I always have time for you my love..." Grey pleaded in a pseudo-romantic manner.

"Then prove it!" The vixen said as she stumbled off in surprising audacity.

"Damn it…" Grey turned to Tyler, knowing he had little time. "Alright Susi, you're free to go, you'll find your gun in a chest on your right when you leave, not a word to Mason, understand?" He demanded.

"Don't worry, I'll only tell him you said yes." Tyler said with a smile.

"Thanks Susi, I really don't want to strain our relationship, the last thing we need is more fighting each other." Grey jolted in surprise when the vixen yelled out to him once more.

"She's your mate?" Tyler asked, leaning towards the open door.

"Yeah… I know it's not a common thing for us types, we tend to be seen as loners, but I couldn't resist, you know?"

"No…"

"No?"

"No…"

"Hmmm…" Grey slowly nodded. "Well… alright Susi, I've gotta go…"

"Have fun!" Tyler yelled, before slapping himself in the face over how stupid that sounded.

After a few moments of quick examination and a minor scanning of his surroundings, Tyler retreated from the bottom part of Avaluuk.

~X~X~X~X~X~

The lupine gently advanced inside the medium sized accommodating room. He was sure this was the one which Mason had given him and Agent Rotte. The door closed behind him, locking automatically. The room itself was unnaturally shaped for sleeping quarters, most likely due to the fact that it had been converted from a small research lab into a two-guest cabin.

Agent Rotte stepped out of a door on the side of the room. "Tyler, where the hell have you been?" He asked, throwing a towel to the side and thankfully having something behind it.

"Tyler?" The lupine repeated. "Who's Tyler?"

"That's you're middle name, right?" Agent Rotte said with a smirk.

"I guess it is now."

"So, are you going to answer my question? You disappeared from the radar for two hours and what?"

"I got him."

"You… got him?"

"Grey… I think I managed to convince him to join our cause."

"Well that's great! How did you do it?"

"Turns out he used to be one of Freeman's commanders, he'll be valuable in combating him because he knows his strengths and weaknesses."

"You learned that all one the first day?" Agent Rotte wondered. "Bravo… I think we might be doing too good. But that still doesn't answer the question of where were you."

"I was… I don't exactly know, but he wanted to test out my skills to see if I was competent enough."

"Oh, and how did he test you?"

"I'm an explosives technician, think about it."

The black and brown canine nodded before retreating to a nearby desk, which was the only piece of furniture in the room except for a couple beds and a drawer to store clothing. "Looks like I brought the right Cornerian for the job." He said, picking up a list of contingency plans.

Tyler yawned. His eyes started to feel tired and strained. "I think I'm gonna hit the sack." He said, stretching his arms outward.

"Fine by me, if you plan on taking a shower, remember that the station has this thing with water, so you've gotta be in and out by three minutes."

"Noted." Tyler returned as he figured now would be a good time to relax. He had been stressed out quite a bit recently and needed to sit back and take pride in what he had done. "You know Wyatt, I think this might whole operation might be a little easier than we're making it out to be."

"I hope you're right."

A few minutes of bedtime preparations aside, Tyler eventually sank into his bed; even though he had already slept before, it did more harm to him than good.

He wondered what Walter was doing, what everyone was doing without him. With him gone, Walter's responsibility was jacked up in response. What he needed now was to find his cohort as he slowly slipped into the deep and strange world of his mind. He would need to traverse a cold and harsh landscape to reunite with the one he could call his friend.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Author's Notes: **Hey guys, I know I took a kind of different approach on this chapter, how does it work? Did I do it well? Any response is welcomed as long as it doesn't curse the ground I walk on.**


	12. The Next Mourning

~  
The Next Mourning  
~

Tyler clenched his coat tightly as he felt the returning chill of Fichina shiver across him. The change in the intensity was more noticeable now, usually the snow was not so blinding, nor did it often fall sideways like it was now. He scanned the horizon, but he could not even see the small hills which lay but a minutes' walk from the outpost, for it too was obscured by the recently brewing storm, and the only noticeable thing which Tyler could fully make out were the colored flags sticking from the ground which marked the path to the sites.

It would be a twenty minute walk from here to dig site, in normal weather. Now that the storm was moving in, it didn't matter to Tyler how much longer it was going to take, he was going to find his comrade if he had to brave even the storm. The storm, he looked above the barely defined ridge to see the oncoming blizzard, and he had to walk straight into it. At first he ran, but soon got tired of the strenuous pace because the snow was especially soft at the bottom of the thin valley, and the mere effort of lifting his boots out of it meant that walking was the only way he was going to get through this.

He glanced over towards a small, shed once he reached the crest of the icy fold, that garage was built to house the outpost's vehicles, but for some reason, they weren't allowed any vehicles one the base, which was strange since other bases on Fichina were not only allowed them, but they used them frequently. It was not only that being deployed to Fichina was a common source of jokes throughout Corneria, but the fact that it had to be the only one where you had to walk from place to place on foot two miles in the snow, as well as the fact that it just happened to be him and a few others only who were allowed to step foot outside only added to Tyler's shallow and yet contemplative feeling of ambiguous hopelessness.

But Tyler was different; he knew that and so did everyone else. He was there for a reason, and everyone else was there for him. Not even the lupine understood the complete story on why he was there. Everything was shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, nearly to the point of complete confusion.

'_So… cold, why is it so cold? I know it's supposed to be storm season, but it's never felt like this!' _

The lupine's fur shook under the multiple layers of his uniform. The chill which he was stepping through was so much, more than anyone could bear for an extended period. It would be impossible to make a full round trip, once he got to the dig site, assuming his friend wasn't already walking back to the outpost, he would have to stay there until the storm died down. Either way, he was going to get a long talk from the Major, but all that mattered for Tyler was making sure his associate was safe from, whatever was out there.

After a few minutes, Tyler began to feel the real cold start to infiltrate him. At first, Tyler began to feel a strange fatigue set about him; the razor snow started to pelt him softer and slower, the winds became smoother and quieter. His balance loosened, he now struggled to move straight along the flag marked path, being driven only by his sheer determination and though he would never admit it, those ration things which he had earlier.

As time flew by, each step was a fight of its own, as Tyler became a warrior in the brutal struggle against the cold. And to think, the storm had barely begun. It had been cold before, but never like this; if anyone had the tendencies to make such a journey each day, it was definitely him. As one of the Cornerian Army Scouts, it was mandatory to pass a long and rigorous training program; only those who had the required patience and the ability would pass the tests. The final trial involved each member of the unit being dropped in unknown locations in a dense Cornerian forest, the ones who found their way back to the base passed, a test which was not unlike the situation now, except for the fact that it was much colder and much more difficult to move. And this time, there would be no one to rescue him if he failed.

He pushed for another minute, but at that point, time seemed to slow down, and each step became an individual battle. Slowly, the cold sank into him as the heat melted away. The sound of the winds pounding against his flapping coat became muffled and started to lose its flowing pattern, molding into a single long push against Tyler's balance. He was almost there, he had to be. He'd run inside the small cave, where it was warm and the wind couldn't reach him. If he could only move a little longer.

'_Almost… at the… feel… tired…'_

Tyler's eyes slipped, almost closing involuntarily, he struggled to keep them open. He felt like falling asleep, but he knew very well that would mean a death sentence. The frequent sense of fatigue nearly drowned out his thoughts, the numbness crept up on his extremities, and the stinging pain of cold multiplied in the force of the chilling storm.

"Taylor! Taylor!" He yelled for his comrade, but there was no response. "Taylor! Ta…"

'_Need to… keep moving…'_

Tyler's knees sank down onto the new layer of snow. He couldn't see the site up ahead, but that was most likely due to the storm. If only he could reach it. The winds shook him once more, knocking him over and onto his back. The gusts were so strong he could not walk, if he tried to stand, he'd only get knocked down.

He looked around him, there were shadows moving all around the edge of his vision, his eyes began to close, even though he tried his best to keep them open. He stretched as far as his arm could, and pulled himself forward through the cold snow. His breathing fell, and his chest tightened… suddenly, a strange feeling overcame him, as if he was falling into a river. He looked above him one more time, and it was as if he were sinking into a deep blackness.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Agent Rotte shook the sleeping lupine. "Wake up… wake up… C'mon Susi, get up."

Tyler's eyes quickly fluttered open. Reacting, he sprang from the bed and nearly tackled the agent to the ground, but stopped once he recognized him.

"Woah woah Susi, calm down… no need to be so tense. You having bad dreams again?"

"Sort of…"

"Is this going to happen every night?"

Tyler looked about the small room. It was dark, really dark. "No… I'm fine."

Agent Rotte ran over to the wall to turn on a light while Tyler fixed his bunk.

"Get your stuff together Susi…"

"What's wrong?" The lupine asked.

"There was an explosion… came from Grey's place."

"What!"

The two agents navigated through the crowd of onlookers cramped inside the smooth and narrow hallway. They were all focused on what lay behind a certain door. "I'll move on ahead, see what's up." Tyler motioned.

Tyler rudely pushed aside everyone in his way. "What the hell is going on he…" He stopped upon reaching the door. He was expecting to see the charred remains of Grey strewn across the room, but instead behind the door he saw Warlord Grey, kneeling in front of a bloody corpse. He felt a jolt of horror when he recognized the victim.

"Grey… what happened?" Tyler approached the mastiff from behind. He spoke in a louder than normal voice because of the commotion going on behind him.

"She's dead… gone…" Grey lifted the now lifeless arm. "Just like that, gone forever… someone rigged an explosive, she never saw it coming. No doubt it was meant for me…"

"Grey… I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. You never knew her… you never loved her…" Grey tried to hold back a tear, as he covered the dead vulpine up with a bed sheet. "I've always had to deal with loss… but that was when I fought. To lose someone at a time like this…"

"I… who would've done this?" Tyler asked.

Before Grey could give any answer, someone else entered the room through the door behind him.

"Grey, what's going on? Oh…" Mason's wandering eyes fell upon the bed sheet. "What happened?"

"Don't you see what's happened?!" Grey threw himself at the ill-prepared raccoon. "She's dead!" He grabbed Mason by the neck and threw him to the floor. "Who did it? WHO!"

"I don't know! I had nothing to do with it! I swear!" Mason begged in a defensive position, silently pleading his rival to calm down. "Please, just let go of me!"

"Oh really? Isn't it ironic how just yesterday you came in here bragging about your new explosives expert to everybody and their mother, and then this! I'm just drawing an obvious connection here, I'd be wrong not to."

"He… I would never tell him to." Mason looked at Tyler with a face filled with disgust. "Did you do this?" He asked coming to the offensive.

Tyler struggled to find an answer that wouldn't get him killed.

"Of course I didn't do it, are you all crazy?"

"Then who did? None of yours I assume." Grey pointed to Mason, who had now entered full on deflection mode.

"No, it can't be one of them…" Mason admitted. "They wouldn't do something like this… they're tired of fighting, tired of conflict."

"Then who? Who!"

"I don't know!"

They turned to Tyler for an answer.

"I… I'll find him… whoever did this."

"How? Are you some kind of… detective who's going to go all across the place to find the murderer?" Grey mocked.

"Trust me, I've dealt with these sorts of things before, I've been in a situation like this. I'll be able to track him down, I promise."

"How can I trust you? What if you don't deliver, then what?"

"How are you going to narrow down one guy from the whole station?" Mason wondered.

"I'll be able to… I've tracked Freeman down before."

"Freeman, Warlord Freeman?" Mason repeated.

"Yeah, this whole thing has his name written all over it."

"He's right… I remember he had saboteurs that did jobs just like this… I wouldn't be surprised if its him… go… if you find him, try keeping him alive, I want to make it as painful as possible…" Grey gave a brief pause before snapping back to Tyler. "Well… get out of here! Both of you. Leave me alone to mourn my loss…"

"Goodbye Grey." Tyler turned away.

Mason let out an "I'm sorry…" before following Tyler.

Grey remained silent.

As the lupine returned to the outside of the room, it had gotten less packed. Many had gone to spread the news and others had left because they figured being near Grey now would be a safety hazard. Agent Rotte however stood in the same spot he had been when Tyler had left him.

"Familiar?" he asked.

"Yeah… too familiar, it's uncanny." Tyler walked ahead of the agent and initiated a decent pace. "Grey's authorized me to investigate his mate's murder. I think I know where to start."

"And that would be-"

"I had the talk with him about Warlord Freeman yesterday, which means that one of his must've tried to take him out because he knew he'd help us. Fortunately, that makes it easier, because there was only one who heard what we were discussing."

"And that is?"

"The bartender…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Sorry buddy, I'm out for now, and Grey's restricted all traffic, so the next shipment won't come until later."

"Thanks, but we're not here for drinks." Said Agent Rotte.

"Then what are you here for?" The bartender questioned.

"Answers…" Tyler remarked.

"Hey buddy, if that Zoness Dark gave you rampant diarrhea it's not my fault that's just a side effect, happens with a lot of guys."

"What? No, I want to know about what you heard when I was alone with Grey…"

The bartender shifted nervously. "What do you mean?"

"You were the only one there other than us. Remember? When he kicked everyone out? You knew that Grey and I were striking a deal, so you snuck into his room and planted a bomb while he was with me."

"What are you talking about? You're deluded."

"Talking will make it easier on yourself." Agent Rotte imposed. "We won't have to let Grey decide what happens to you."

The lizard backed away from the oncoming detectives, a fearful look was in his eyes. "Listen, I don't want any trouble… especially with Grey."

"Too late, tell us what happened…"

"Ok, Ok! There was someone who came up to me after he left with you, asked what you guys were talking about, I told him and he left, that's it!"

"Interesting… what did he look like?"

"I don't know…"

"Try harder…" Tyler pressured.

"I'm pretty sure he was an avian, but that's it… I, didn't get a good look at him and he was obviously trying to conceal himself… that's all I know, honest!"

"Don't worry, we believe you. Any idea on where to find him?"

"No he, he left right real fast… I don't know anything else."

"You're despicable. Your mouth is looser than Cornerian traffic laws. Let's go Susi…"

~X~X~X~X~X~

"Oh… hello… I'm Detective Mullins, I'm here to speak with James…"

"You were at the funeral, right? Come in…" Answered a gray Hare, who opened the door for Walter. "He's over there…" he pointed to James, who had taken notice of the detective's arrival.

"James…" A sympathetic detective neared the weeping vulpine, who was sitting on his couch, holding an old wedding photo over a long coffee table. "James, I… I came here to talk."

"Talk… what have you found out Detective Mullins?" James said in a low, monotonous drone.

The panther took a deep breath, knowing what he was going to say wasn't in the least bit easy. "I… wanted to say again that I'm sorry about the loss of your wife… and that we're doing everything we can to get whoever's responsible for it. So far… I'm sorry, but we may not be able to ever know who truly did it."

"So nothing new then… where's your friend, O'Donnell? Isn't he the one who asks questions?"

"Detective O'Donnell's on the trail right now, he… he left me behind here where I'm needed. Rest assured that he will do whatever is necessary to-"

"You don't need to continue, I know what you're going to say…" James interrupted. "I just want to know who killed her…"

Walter stuttered silently, he didn't know how to proceed.

"Well? Who is it?"

Walter took out a small device from his pocket. He touched the corners of the device and used them to stretch a large display across the table. "We believe the operation was conducted by a militant who calls himself 'Warlord Freeman', do you know about him?"

"No, never heard of him…"

"We believe that he and a small group of his operatives arrived here the night before your wife was killed. After the incident occurred, the somehow managed to storm the nearby weapons storage facility and take control of it. Later, they took an experimental stealth prototype ship from the facility; the ship's design was mainly attributed to Dr. Holcomb of the Cornerian Army's advanced weapon's division, the same one who was abducted from the weapons convention only two days later."

"So he's after experimental weapons… but why go after me? It doesn't make sense."

"That's one of the questions we have too, Mr. McCloud. He may have been after you because he crossed you once due to your private contracting, or he may have simply been attempting something else we're unaware of. You're sure you've never seen or heard of him?"

"Not in my life. I have absolutely no connection with him…"

"Nothing?"

The vulpine shook his head. "It doesn't make sense… why would he do this? She'd never hurt anybody. I know it wasn't meant for her but… does this mean he'll try and finish the job? Come after me in the future."

"Possibly, I'd keep my vehicles in a garage from now on if I were you McCloud…"

"Thanks, I'd keep an eye out for Freeman if I were you…"

"Well… then I guess I'm done here…" Walter began to get up, but James interjected and stopped him.

"Wait… I… are you sure it's him?"

"He knew what type of bomb was used without us even telling him. And we're fairly certain that his escape only adds to his guilt."

A few moments of silence was exchanged, and then, came a strange request from the vulpine.

"Detective… are you a good pilot?"

"What?" Walter's ears stood up.

"You know how to fly?" James asked with a hidden smirk.

"I…" Walter felt confused at the question. Why would James ask something like that? "I can't fly anything small like an interceptor… but… they did teach me to fly big boys when I was in the military."

"Can you work a dreadnought?"

"It's been some time…"

"Well… if you have any information on where this 'Freeman' is, give me a call… and bring your gun…"

"Ok, I'll make sure of it." Walter nodded before exiting the house.

James' intentions were not secret to the detective; he would do anything and then some. Walter only hoped it didn't involve any more death.

Walter was driving home later that day. It was cloudy again, slowly beginning to rain, but it never really committed to anything serious. "Damn it, what's with the weather? It's like the sky is depressed."

His scanner started to buzz. '_all units, there's been an accident, on fifteenth, expect major delays all around…'_

"What? Teenagers. Might as well walk home, will probably be faster… I've gotta stop talking to myself…" Walter pulled over into the station parking lot. It would be easier to weave through the streets on foot that wait for the traffic to clear up.

He walked down an empty street; it was oddly dark and had an ominous sense of tension about it. He passed an alley, and he wouldn't have given another glance, but he saw some movement, and figured he should at least check it out. "Anyone here?" He looked around the alley, it seemed to be empty.

Just as he turned, he heard a sound from behind him. He saw a Cornerian who was trying to sleep on a pillow of trash and debris. The weak and dirty looking feline froze as Walter looked at him.

"Hey, are you all right? You shouldn't be out in the rain like this."

There was no response.

"You know there's a shelter only a few blocks from here…"

Still no response.

"Come on, you look hungry, let's go get you a warm meal."

~X~X~X~X~X~

**Author's Notes: **

**int main(stupid)**

**{**

**I guess you're confused as to why these notes look so weird, but that's probably a good thing, because if you knew, I'd have reason to worry.**

} 

Hooray for reviews!


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